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1 

CLASSIC BAPTISM. 



AN INQUIRY 



THE MEANING OF THE WORD 



B A n T I Z XI, 



AS DETERMINED BY THE USAGE OF 



CLASSICAL GREEK WRITERS. 



JAMES W. DALE, 

PASTOR OP THE MEDIA PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, DELAWARE COUNTY, PA. 



PHILADELPHIA : 
WM. RUTTER & CO. 

BOSTON : CHICAGO : 

DRAPER & HALLIDAY. S. C. GRIGGS & CO. 

1867. 



It- 






" Either the words of a language must each denote only a single 
notion — a single fasciculus of thought, — the multitude of notions not 
designated being allowed to perish ; or the words of a language must each 
be employed to denote a plurality of concepts. Of these alternatives the 
latter is the one which has been universally preferred ; and accordingly 
all languages by the same word express a multitude of thoughts, more or 
less differing from each other. 

" Now, what is the consequence of this ? It is plain that if a word has 
more than a single meaning attached to it, when it is employed it cannot 
of itself directly and peremptorily suggest any definite thought ; all that 
it can do is vaguely and hypothetically to suggest a variety of different 
notions ; and we are obliged, from a consideration of the context, of the 
tenor, of the general analogy of the discourse, to surmise with greater or 
less assurance, with greater or less precision, what particular bundle of 
characteristics it was intended to convey." 

Sir William Hamilton. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by 

JAMES W. DALE, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 



SHERMAN & CO., 

STEREOTYPERS AND PRINTERS, 

PHILADELPHIA. 



SYNOPSIS. 



Baptist Writers. 

their views presented and difficulties suggested. 

A. R., A. Barber, Booth, Carson, Conant, Cox, Confession 
of Faith, Curtis, Lagg, Fuller, Gale, Jewett, Morell, Ripley, 
Stovel, Roger Williams, Wayland. 

Greek Writers. 

Using PcLxto). — Achilles Tatius, iElian, iEsop, ^schylus, 
Antoninus, Aratus, Arrian, Aristophanes, Aristotle, Barker's 
Classical Recreations, Bentleii Epigr. Collect., Constantine r 
Dionysius, Euripides, Eustathius, Epictetus, Eupolis, Herod- 
otus, Ilelladius, Hippocrates, Homer, Iamblichus, Julius Pollux, 
Lucian, Lycophron, Menander, Plato, Plutarch, Sophocles, 
Strabo, Suidas, Theocritus. 

Latin Writers. 

Using Tingo. — Calpurnius, Celsus, Cicero, Horace, Juvenal, 
Martial, Ovid, Perseus, Pliny, Propertius, Seneca, Virgil. 

Using Mergo. — Catullus, Curtius, Horace, Juvenal, Livy, 
Lucan, Lucretius, Martial, Ovid, Perseus, Plautus, Pliny, 
Quintillian, Seneca, Statius, Yirgil, Yalerius Flaccus. 

English Writers. 

Using Dip and Immerse. — Booth, Bonheur, Chalmers, Sir A. 
Clarke, Coleridge, Cowper, Current Literature, Dry den, Col. 
Gardiner, Glover, Hanna, Judge Brackenridge, Kane, L'Es- 

1 ( iii ) 



IV WRITERS NOTICED. 

trange, Leyburn, Judge Kelley, Milton, Sir Thomas More, 
Pope, Sir "Walter Scott, Spenser, Mrs. Sherwood, Shakspeare, 
Eev. Dr. Thorn well, Warburton, Young. 

Greek Writers. 

Using fiaxTi%<D. — Achilles Tatius,iEsop, Alcibiades, Alciphron, 
Alexander Aphrodisias, Archias, Aristotle, Arrian, Athenseus, 
Chariton Aphrodisias, Conon, Demetrius, Demosthenes, Dio- 
dorus Siculus, Dion Cassius, Epictetus, Eubulus, Evenus, 
Heliodorus, Hippocrates, Heimerius, Homer, Julian. Egypt., 
Libanius, Lucian, Nicander, Orpheus, Pindar, Plato, Plotinus, 
Plutarch, Polysenus, Polybius, Porphyry, Proclus, Strabo, 
Suidas, Themistius. 



Other Writers. 

Addison, Bauer, Blair, Elizabeth Carter, De Wette, Ency- 
clop. Americana, Prof. Ewing, President Halley, Houghton, 
Rev. J. H. Orbison, Eobinson, Prof. Stuart, Valla, Prof. 
Wilson, Quintillian, Home Tooke, Sir William Hamilton, 
Chaucer, Fabian, Mortimer. 



I. 

COURSE OF INQUIRY. 



Introductory. 



Discussion has continued through centuries. Baptists claim 
to have reached demonstrated and absolute truth. Truth, 
unmixed with error, when presented, has power to compel 
conviction. If already discovered, no apology for rejecting 
or neglecting, and originating renewed inquiry. Obligation 
to examine and determine the value of Baptist results. 

Baptist Writers. 
Their principles. Their translations. Their practice. 

Baptist Postulates. 

— * 

1. Ba-~{'Cw, through all Greek literature, has but one mean- 
ing; which meaning is definite, clear, precise, and easy of 
translation. 

2. Ba-ziZu) and fid-no have precisely the same meaning, 
dyeing excepted, and, in all other respects, whether as to 
form, or force, or effect, they differ nothing. 

3. Ba-riXu) expresses an act, a definite act; mode, and noth- 
ing but mode, — to dip. Ed-rat, primary, expresses an act, a 
definite act ; mode, and nothing but mode, — to dip. 

4. BaatriZto has the same meaning in figurative as in literal 
use, always referring to the act of dipping. 

Counter Propositions. 

1. Bd-rw, in primary use, expresses a definite act, character- 
ized by various and essential limitations, — to dip. 

(v) 



VI COURSE OF INQUIRY. 

2. Bdnrw, dip, in secondary use. expresses a limited force, 
with a correspondingly limited effect, 

3. Ba7TTt^a), in primary use, expresses condition, intusposi- 
tion, without limitations, 

4. BaxTiZa), in secondary use, expresses condition effected by 
controlling influence, without limitation of intusposition, or 
otherwise. 

Meaning of the "Word. 

Baptist Yiews expressed by Koger Williams and u A. E., r ' 
A. Barber, Gale, Booth, Cox, Carson, Fuller, Dagg, 
Stovel, Jewett. 

Dip, Plunge, Immerse, used, at will, as convertible and equiva- 
lent terms. Is this true ? Can it be tolerated in assigning a 
definite, critical, and controversial meaning to a word? 

Booth says, .No. " The substitution of these words for one 
another makes sentiment and practice ridiculous." Dagg 
says, No. And sharply discriminates between dip and im- 
merse in a long list of definitions; after which he turns his 
pen and blots the distinction made. Fuller says, No. And by 
his negation makes a way of escape from difficulty; but soon 
denies his denial, in order to escape from equal difficulty on 
the frther side. 



Immerse,, a Kefuge prom the Difficulties of Modal Action, 

Modal action the sine qua non, heretofore, of the Baptist 
theory. 

Dr. Fuller, A. E., Baptist Confession of Faith. 

Doubt arising about "the definite act" theory. Parties 
among the Baptists. 

1. Some affirm the theory absolutely (Carson). 2. Some 
doubt (G-ale). 3. Some deny (Fuller). 4. Some non liquet 
(Conant). 

Carson earnestly condemns Gale and Cox as abandoning 
the point at issue. Morell, dissatisfied with Carson's defence, 
frankly declares that he does give up the point. " Immersion 
may be by pouring" (Cox, Morell, Fuller), 



COURSE OF INQUIRY. Vll 



Dr. Conant. 



His labors great and valuable ; but do not meet the severe 
demands of the Baptist system. Do not sustain modal mean- 
ing, — to dip, to plunge. Introduce submersion, condition. 
Affirms act of passing from one element into another. Sea- 
coast baptism. No such act of passing in it. Carson says 
there is such act expressed. Gale and Fuller deny. The one 
contradicts common sense; the others contradict Baptist prin- 
ciples. 

Dr. Conant's Definition: Act is made a vanishing quantity; 
condition is brought into high relief. Secondary or analogous 
meaning, — state of life. Cannot be founded on the form of 
an act. 

Second Definition. — Seven denning words. Inconsistent 
with Baptist principles. Bound to define by a term of abso- 
lute unity. Carson acknowledges the obligation; attempts to 
meet it; and presents dip, and stumbles at the threshold 
against u or." Conant rejects dip almost as utterly, as Carson 
maintains it exclusively. Makes it one of seven defining 
words, yet excludes it from more than six-sevenths of the 
cases. Objections to the seven defining words, — to immerse, 
to im-merge, to sub-merge, to dip, to plunge, to whelm, to imbathe. 
Form of act abandoned. Words compounded with prepo- 
sitions should not, unnecessarily, translate uncompounded 
words. Never means dip. Confounded with fid-raj. 

Metaphorical Use. — Not based on act, but condition. Wine- 
cup, perplexing questions, opiate drop, and such like, familiar 
agencies of baptism. If Dr. Conant will accept condition with- 
out " the image of the act," he will agree with us, and differ 
from Baptists. 

Immerse as a Latin Derivative. 

Growing disposition to use immerse as a shield against the 
difficulties of argument, while dip is held in reserve as a 
necessity for practice. No confession of past error. 

Duplex Use. — 1. The Latin preposition in expresses, some- 
times movement, sometimes position. In im-mergo it expresses 
position and not movement. Under the plea of Latinism, 



Vlll COURSE OF INQUIRY. 

movement is, erroneously, introduced, and the translation, to 
dip, to plunge, grounded on it, and applied to cases of baptism 
in which the object is moved. 

2. Im-merse, in English, does not express movement; hence, 
in other cases of baptism, where no movement of the object 
takes place, and dip or plunge will not answer to the facts, 
this word can be slipped in. 

Bury, and such like words, do not express movement. " Bury 
into" does not give power of movement to bury. The duplicity 
of use which characterizes Baptist usage in employing im- 
merse must be guarded against. 

Failure. 

Baptist writers fail to show : 1. One clear, precise, definite, 
easily translatable meaning. 2. That fid*™ and fta-~iZu> have 
the same meaning, form, and force. 8. That fta.K~i^w expresses 
act, definite act, mode and nothing but mode — to dip.' 4. That 
panT^o), in secondary use, pictures the act of dipping. 5. That 
any English word daguerreotypes the Greek word. 

Administration of the Eite. 

How is the rite of baptism to be administered ? Baptist 
Confession of Faith says : " Dipping or plunging the whole 
body." "Immersing the subject in water" (Booth). Candi- 
date placed under the water (Bipley). "Immersing of the 
body in water" (Wayland). " Immersion or burial of the 
body in water" (Curtis). " Immersion of the subject in water 
is essential;" "commanded to perform the act represented by 
the word baptize" (Jewett). "Not sprinkling or pouring; 
the motion takes place in the man, and ceases when the man 
in baptized in water", (Stovel). 

The Act. 

" Commanded to perform the act" What act ? " The act 
of immersing the subject." What is the act of immersing? 
" The act which we are commanded to perform by the word 
baptize." Very clear and very precise ! " The act is to move 



COURSE OF INQUIRY. IX 

a man until he is baptized." And "to move" expresses an 
act so clear, so precise, and so definite as to need no elucida- 
tion ! The Confession of Faith uses no enigmatical terms j with 
frankness and perfect explicitness it declares, — "the act is 
dipping or plunging." With such statement, nothing is left 
but to inquire, Does God command us to perform one or the 
other of those well-defined acts, — to dip, to plunge ? If so, 
which? They differ essentially; dipping is not plunging, 
plunging is not dipping. 

The Object. 

What is the object of the act ? " The man " (Stovel). " The 
subject" (Booth, Jewett). "The body" (Wayland, Curtis). 
" The whole body" (Conf. of Faith). Xo discord in the ut- 
terance of this element of Baptist sentiment. Practice, how- 
ever, antagonizes sentiment. " Baptism does not take place 
until after the greater part of the body has been put under 
water by the act of walking" (Ripley). This is practice. 
What, now, becomes of the sentiment which announces "the 
act of dipping," as specifically the divine command, and "the 
whole body" as the object of that act? 

The End. 

What is the end of the act? "The act ceases when the 
man is baptized in the water" (Stovel). "In plunging the 
whole body under water" (Conf. of Faith). " Emersion is not 
in the word, simply puts into or under the water" (Conant). 

Eemarkable confessions. 1. Abandons the definition, to dip. 
2. Puts a living man under water, with, confessedly, no pro- 
vision to take him out. Beyond all credibility that any such 
act should have been commanded. To substitute /Sr/rrw for 
j3a-Tgaj, overtly, none dare to do ; to retain, verbally, ^a-r^w, 
and give to it the meaning of jld-rco, is to do covertly what 
none venture to do overtly. 

Validity. 

What are the requisites to valid baptism ? 1. Immersion 
of the subject. 2. Immersion of the subject in water. 3. Im- 



X COURSE OF INQUIRY. 

mersion of the subject in water by the act commanded in 
baptize. 

1. "Immersion." In immersion there is no limitation of 
time. Is this a divine injunction? 2. "The subject." As 
the subject is never immersed by Baptists in their ritual ser- 
vice, but the head and shoulders, only, they hereby destroy 
their own baptism. 3. " The act commanded." The act, 
universally, performed in practice is dipping ; but men high 
in Baptist authority now admit that the word does not always 
mean to dip. How do they know that it means to dip here ? 
Besides, to dip is, now, rarely found in any Baptist transla- 
tion of the word ; its appearance is becoming more and more 
rare ; how do they know that fiaTzzi^u) ever means to dip ? 

The foundations of Baptist baptism, in its validity, are 
shaken by its friends. 



Eesults. 

We gather from Baptist records : 

1. As to the Word. The disagreement between one writer 
and another, and the disagreement of every writer with him- 
self, shows either an imperfect understanding of the word, or 
a failure to find any word in the English language to expound 
their conception. 

2. As to Ritual Administration. Sentiment and practice are 
in irreconcilable contradiction. 

3. As to Validity of the Rite. Honesty in stating the elements 
which are essential to valid baptism is unquestionable, inas- 
much as they destroy their own, no less than that of all others. 

4. As to the Propriety of Renewed Investigation. "Want of ac- 
cord with principles, and want of agreement between writers, 
show some radical error, and require a new investigation. 



RENEWED INVESTIGATION. XI 

II. 

RENEWED INVESTIGATION. 



Z?^/777Z£— What is its Meaning. 

Advantage of a simultaneous and comparative examination 
of the usage of @&izrm and pami£u> — tingo and mergo — dip and 

IMMERSE. 

Yerbs demanding Condition for their Object, 
bury. drown. whelm. 

Bury demands covered condition for its object, without 
limitation in the form of the act by which such condition may 
be effected. 

Brown demands: 1. Covered condition. 2. Condition re- 
sulting from such covered condition — suffocation. 3. Condi- 
tion resulting from controlling influence without any covering. 

Whelm demands : 1. Covered condition. 2. Irresistible in- 
fluence without covering. 

Form of act is demanded by none of these words. 

j 

PLUNGE. 

Plunge demands the execution of an act of definite charac- 
teristics. This word belongs to a class widely separated, in 
nature, from the preceding. 

Bd-ro) belongs to the same class with plunge; pa-zi^a) to that 
class represented by bury, drown, and whelm. 

Farther Explanation. 

1. Form of act does not belong to fio-riZuj. 2. Intusposition, 
within a closely investing medium, essential to the primary 
use. 3. Indefinite continuance in such condition equally essen- 
tial to the word. 4. Feeble influence, the result of superficial 
entrance and momentary continuance, excluded. Carson in- 
sists, unqualifiedly, on a definite act. Gale doubts. Conant 
leans to Gale. President Hallcy, of England, and Professor 



Xll RENEWED INVESTIGATION. 

"Wilson, of Ireland, adopt state, condition, in opposition to act. 
Form of act, whether in primary or metaphorical use, must be 
abandoned. 

Intusposition. Condition of intusposition carries with it the 
idea of completeness. 1. Complete investiture, simply, as of 
a rock. 2. Complete influence resulting from such investiture, 
as in a ship sunk. 3. Complete influence induced by other 
causes than an investing element. Exigencies of language 
require such modification. 4. Frequent and perpetuated use 
expressive of a definite influence begets a specific meaning; 
as in the case of water, to drown, and in the case of wine, to 
make drunk. 

As paxriXui has for its starting-point a condition of intuspo- 
sition, complete as to extent and indefinite as to duration; 
while pdxTcu sets out from a trivial act of superficial entrance 
and of evanescent continuance in an element; these words 
may be well expected to have a development broadly di- 
vergent. 

Eepresentative Word. 

Baptists have failed to present a representative word. Now, 
they offer one, now another, and now a third, each differing in 
form and in force. 

No English word, in its radical thought and development, 
squarely correspondent with the Greek word. 

To drown, to whelm, to merse, to steep, to inn, each may 
present some specialty of claim. The Greek word having but 
one form throughout its usage, it is desirable that there should 
be, if possible, but one English word used in its translation. In 
a controverted issue, it is especially desirable to avoid the shift- 
ing from one word to another, even at the expense of using, 
sometimes, unfamiliar forms of phraseology. We choose, from 
among other imperfect terms, Merse. 

Definition. 

1. To intuspose, to merse; specifically, to drown. 

2. To influence controllingly ; specifically, to make drunk. 

The facts of usage must sustain this definition, or it is er- 
roneous. Every known case of classical usage adduced. The 
period covered by the quotations is about a thousand years. 



RENEWED INVESTIGATION. Xlll 

BAHTn— ITS MEANING. 
To Dip. 

To dip expresses a gentle, do.wnward movement, entering 
slightly into some diverse element, with immediate return. 

Dip and plunge are evidently separated in nature. Plunge 
expresses movement characterized by rapidity and force, en- 
tering into some element without return. To dip passes on 
from its special, primary use, to express to wet, to moisten, to 
wash, without involving the form of the act. 

iElian, Aristophanes, Aristotle, Constantine, Dionysius Hal- 
icarnassus, Euripides, Iamblichus, Lycophron, Theocritus, 
Aratus, Herodotus, Plutarch, Suidas. 

To Dye. 

Gale says, this word is used in the art of dyeing, but always 
implying the act to dip. Carson denies that the act is pre- 
served in dyeing; and all Baptists, now, adopt his doctrine, 
and admit that dipping (retaining one word throughout the 
modifications of meaning, as does the Greek) may be by 
sprinkling. 

To dye, in the progress of usage, becomes to stain, to smear, 
to gild, to temper, to imbue, or tincture. 

Achilles Tatius, iEsop, Aristophanes, Eustathius, Hippoc- 
rates, Iamblichus, Julius Pollux, Menander, Plato, Antoninus, 
^Eschylus, Aristotle, Epictetus, Eupolis, Helladius, Homer, 
Sophocles, Strabo. 

Bd-zm : 1. Dips, putting momentarily into a fluid. 

" 2. Dips, by dipping into a coloring fluid, — dyes. 

" 3. Dips, without dipping, by means of coloring mat- 
ter, — stains. 

" 4. Dips, without dipping, without dyeing, without 
staining, by communicating uncolored quality, 
— tinctures. 

BdT-w, dips, without the modal act of dipping. 
" dyes, without imparting the quality of color. 



XIV RENEWED INVESTIGATION. 

Bd-ro), to dip, takes as its syntax efc, with the accusative; 
fid-Ta>, to dye, takes as its syntax the coloring matter in the 
dative, usually, without a preposition. 

TINGO— TO DIP. 

The meaning of this word is uncontroverted. It is in re- 
markable harmony with ftdxru) in all its phases. 
It means, to dip, to wet, to moisten, to wash, to anoint. 
Celsus, Juvenal, Ovid, Perseus, Propertius, Yirgil. 

TINGO— TO DYE. 

It means, to dye, to stain, to paint, to temper, to imbue, or tinc- 
ture. 

Cicero, Horace, Juvenal, Martial, Ovid, Perseus, Pliny, 
Yirgil, Seneca. 

Tingo: 1. Dips, putting momentarily into a fluid. 
" 2. Dips, by putting into a coloring fluid, — dyes. 
" 3. Dips, without dipping, by means of coloring mat- 
ter, — stains. 
4. Dips, without dipping, without dyeing, without 
staining, by communicating uncolored quality, 
— tinctures. 



DIP., 

The English dip corresponds, in all radical features, with 
fidnzm and tingo. It means to put in superficially and mo- 
mentarily, to dip, to wet, to bathe slightly, to examine superficially, 
to engage in limitedly, to mortgage, to take out a small quantity. 

Booth, Chalmers, Dryden, Sir A. Clarke, Clover, Milton, 
Sir Thomas Moore, Pope, Sir Walter Scott, Shakspeare. 



DIP = DYE. 

It means to dye, to stain, to imbue or tincture. 
Coleridge, Cowper, Milton, Pope, Scott, Spenser, Warburton, 
Young. 



RENEWED INVESTIGATION. XV 

Conclusion. — Bd-rio, tingo, dip, each represents a form of 
act characterized by limitations as to — 1. Force. 2. Extent 
of penetration into an element. 3. Duration of continuance 
in it. 4. Magnitude of its objects. 5. Degree of influence. 

In using one word to translate pa-riZu) : it should be borne 
in mind, that the Greeks and Latins used but one word to 
express the modal act of dipping, and the quality of color by 
dyeing, as well as all the subordinate modifications of each of 
these terms. Were we to translate in these cases, throughout, 
by the one word expressive of the primary meaning, we should 
have to use such phrases as — Dip the pastures with dew; Dip 
the face with tears; Dip the grass by sprinkling blood upon it. 

Such breadth of usage, and such widely divergent, not to 
say contradictory, meaning in the use of these terms, affords 
but a poor basis whereon to ground the anticipation of finding 
in i3a-ziX(o " a, definite act, mode and nothing but mode, one 
meaning through all Greek literature." 

But the facts of usage, only, have authority; let us hear 
them. 

First, let us inquire into the testimony of the corresponding 
English and Latin words, Immerse and Mergo. 



XVI RENEWED INVESTIGATION. 



III. 



IMMEKSE. 

Immerse and dip are confounded together by Baptist 
writers, and interchanged at will. There is no authority for 
so doing. 

Meaning: To cause to be in a state of intusposition without 
limitation of depth, or time, or force, or object, or mode of accom- 
plishment. 

In all of these particulars it is in irreconcilable contrast 
with dip. Dip performs an act upon its object transitory and 
limited in all directions. It does not put its object in a new 
state or condition. 

Immerse makes no demand for the performance of any defi- 
nite act. It does demand state, condition, intuspositiom This 
state is of indefinite continuance ; it may be changed by the 
intervention of foreign influence, but it is never changed by 
immerse.- In mersion, brevity of continuance is an accident, 
not belonging to the state ; in dipping, brevity of continuance 
is of the essence of the act, and is always present. The acci- 
dental feature of brevity, cannot convert a state of mersion 
into an act of dipping. The compounding preposition "in" 
denotes position only, and not movement. Immerse is used to 
express thorough influence of any kind. 

Booth, Chalmers, Cowper, Current Literature, Dr. Kane, 
Pope, Sir Walter Scott, Young. 

Bdnratj tingo, dip, touch at all points; immerse is separated 
from each at all points. 

MEKGO. 

1. Mergo expresses no form of act. 2. It is alike indifferent 
to the movement of the object or the element. 3. Its object 
may be a grain of sand or a world. 4. The time of its mer- 
sion is without limit. 5. The force it may call into action has 
no bound. 6. It demands intusposition for its object, and with 
this is satisfied-. 

Secondary Use. — 1. It expresses a condition resultant from 



RENEWED INVESTIGATION. XV11 

some controlling influence. 2. Absolutely, it expresses (gener- 
ally) destructive influence. 3. Specifically, it means to drown, 
to make drunk. 

Catullus, Curtius, Horace, Juvenal, Livy, Lucan, Lucretius, 
Martial, Ovid, Pliny, Statius, Quintillian, Valerius Flaccus, 
Virgil. 

Mergo and immerse, with some specialties of use, are in per- 
fect harmony. Mergo is in broad contrast, throughout all its 
usage, with /3<*7rro>, tingo, and dip. 



BAnTIZQ. 

What is its Usage? 
Use is of supreme authority, and the rule in the language. 

1. 

Baxri^u) expresses intusposition without influence. 

Aristotle, Archias, Julian the Egyptian, Lucian, Orpheus, 
Plutarch, Polybius, Porphyry, Strabo. 

1. Ba-Ti'ai is without limitation as to power, object, dura- 
tion, and form of action. 

2. Expressing no form of act, it accepts of all forms of act 
competent to effect its demand. 

3. The confusion of pdxziD and ^aizri^a) is a grave error and 
without excuse. 

4. The corner-stone of the Baptist system — " Baptizing is 
Dipping, and Dipping is Baptizing" — is pure error. 

5. While some objects are uninfluenced by intusposition 
within a fluid, most objects will be thoroughly influenced by 
being placed in such a condition. 

2. 
It expresses intusposition with influence. 

1. Vessels sunk by storm. 2. Vessels and persons sunk by 
weight. 3. Animals, &c, mersed by the flowing or uprising 
of water and of blood. 4. "Drowned" or "drunk" by mer- 
sion continued four days. 5. Mersion of the soul. 

Achilles Tatius, iEsop, Alexander Aphrodisias, Diodorus 



XV111 RENEWED INVESTIGATION. 

Siculus, Dion Cassius, Epictetus, Eubulus, Heliodorus, Hippoc- 
rates, Homer, Plotinus, Plutarch, Polybius, Strabo, Suidas. 

3. 

Intusposition for influence. 

1. To drown. 2. To saturate. 3. To incrust. 4. To de- 
stroy vessels. 

iEsop, Achilles Tatius, Alcibiades, Dion Cassius, Heliodorus, 
Heimerius, Hippocrates, Lucian, Nicander, Polyaenus, Plu- 
tarch, Polybius, Strabo, Themistius. 

4. 

Influence with rhetorical figure. 

1. Overflowing wave. 2. Tempest. 

Chariton Aphrodisias, Dion Cassius, Libanius, Pindar. 

5. 

Figurative language. 

Figure becomes worn out by constant use. Any word 
which, originally metaphorical in its use, has secured for 
itself a well-defined meaning, diverse from literal use, lays 
aside the character of figure and takes its place among literal 
we;*ds. 

BaTiriZo), through daily and long-continued use, has secured 
a secondary use, conveying an idea derived, but dissociated, 
from the primary use, which gives it a status of its own with- 
out recurring to the source whence it sprang. 

Carson, Blair, Quintillian. 

SECOKDAKY USE. 
Controlling Influence — General. 

1. 

Without Intusposition. 

Achilles Tatius, iEsop, Alciphron, Alexander Aphrodisias, 
Demosthenes, Demetrius, Diodorus Siculus, Heliodorus, Heim- 
erius, Libanius, Plotinus, Plutarch, Proclus, Themistius. 



RENEWED INVESTIGATION. XIX 



The changes now shown to have taken place in fiazrt"t 
viz., 1. Intusposition without influence; 2. Intusposition with 
influence; 3. Intusposition for influence; and 4. Influence with- 
out intusposition — find a complete parallel and vindication in 
those changes which have been shown to take place in the 
usage of fid::™, viz., 1. Dipping without dyeing; 2. Dipping 
for dyeing; 3. Dyeing without dipping. 

Bdr-io — 1. Dips without dyeing. 2. Dips for dyeing. 3. 
Byes without dipping. 

Da-ziXco — 1. Merses without influence. 2. Merses for in- 
fluence. 3. Influences without mersing. 

So, Steep — 1. Intusposes. 2. Intusposes for influence. 3. 
Influences without intusposing. 

Ba—c^io, used absolutely, or with appropriate case, in un- 
physical relations, exj^resses, directly and not figuratively, con- 
trolling influence. The modality of position, out of which this 
idea grows, has disappeared. 



Controlling Influence — Specific. 
Without Intusposition. 

Some things exert over certain objects a definite and. in- 
varvino; influence. Water exerts over all human beings, 
mersed in it, the specific influence of suffocation — drowning. 

"Wine freely drunk, makes drunk. An opiate swallowed, stu- 
pefies. When tSa—^io is used to express the condition result- 
ing from these influences (as it very frequently is), it no longer 
expresses controlling influence generally; but expresses, from 
the necessity of the ease, that specific influence which be- 
longs to water — to drown; or to wine — to make drunk; or to 
an opiate — to stupefy. 

Whatever breadth of meaning any word may be possessed 
of, if it be persistently used to denote a condition, such as 
results from wine drinking and kindred influences, deeply 
marked and of unvarying uniformity, it cannot but be, that 
the idea of such condition becomes incorporated in the word. 
Tt> drink has a very broad application; but persistently used 
to express the drinking of intoxicating liquors, "a drinking 

2 



XX RENEWED INVESTIGATION. 

man" comes to express a drunken man. The Greek word has 
great breadth of application; but used familiarly, and long, 
to express the condition induced by wine-influence, it comes 
to express directly the state of drunkenness. 

Some of the specific conditions expressed by this word, and 
which render its translation by an appropriate term justifi- 
able, if not compulsory, are as follows : 

1. To bring into a condition of stupdr — to stupefy ; by swal- 
lowing an opiate. 

2. To bring into a state of drunkenness — to make drunk; by 
drinking wine. 

3. To bring into a state of coldness— to make cold; by pour- 
ing water on hot iron. 

4. To bring into a state of bewilderment — to bewilder; by 
asking sophistical questions. 

5. To bring into an unintoxicating state — to temper wine; by 
pouring water through it. 

6. To bring into a state of pureness — to purify; by using 
sea- water in any way. 

Achilles Tatius, Athenaeus, Conon, Evenus, Homer. Alleg., 
Lucian, Plato, Plutarch. 

From such usage, figure (dipping!) has irrecoverably dis- 
appeared. 

Parabaptists. 
a class of persons of defective character. 

Implied contrast with persons who are Baptists — persons 
of decided character, who are under some controlling in- 
fluence. 

Arrian. 

General Eesdlts. 

1. Certain old and long-cherished errors have been corrected 
and abandoned. 

2. Other errors yet remain to be corrected. 

3. Usage has spoken freely, and been, I trust, reported 
truly. 



RENEWED INVESTIGATION. XXI 

Usage declares : 

1. Bd-rw. tingo, and dip to be equivalent terms in their orig- 
inal import, and, also, that they run parallel, in a remarkable 
degree, in all the variations of their development. 

2. Usage bears the same testimony to the common nature 
and kindred development of ^a-rc'^w, mergo, and mers'e. 

3. As the former class of terms agrees, essentially, in all its 
members, so it is in essential disagreement with all the mem- 
bers of the latter class. 

Bd~T(0. 

1. Puts its object into a simple fluid element, and withdraws 
it promptly. 

2. Changes the state or quality of its object, as to color, 
by putting into coloring liquid. 

3. Changes the state or quality of its object, as to color, by 
pressure, sprinkling, or otherwise. 

4. Changes the state or quality of its object where color is 
not involved. 

BaTzri^ui. 

1. Intusposes its object within a fluid element without provid- 
ing for its removal 

2. Influences, controllingly, its object by intuspositior. I 

3. Influences, controllingly, its object without intusposition. 

4. It drowns. It makes drunk. 

Ba.Tzzi*ui expresses any complete change of condition by what- 
soever agency effected, or in whatsoever way applied. 



TEST OF TRUTH. 

A master key proves its character by throwing back the 
bolts of every lock to which it is applied. 

The meaning assigned to ^ar.zi^oi gives proof that it is such 
a master key. Applied to every passage of classical Greek in 
which the word is used, a clear and adequate solution is at 
once revealed. 



XX11 RENEWED INVESTIGATION, 

Try the opposing meaning — a definite act — and fashion a 
key after that principle (of what model yon will), dip, plunge, 
sink, overflow, or what not, and each must, in turn, be thrown 
aside in utter disappointment. The usage of $a-ri%(i} cannot 
be "mastered" by any effort in that direction. 

Abandon all such endeavor, and apply the meaning — Con- 
dition : 

(1.) Condition of complete intusposition ;. 

(2.) Condition of complete influence ;' 

And we have a key which opens every passage, "as on 
golden hinges turning." 

The meaning assigned throws light upon the origin of the 
conflicting views so long maintained, and their relations to the 
truth. 

1. On the one side we have dip. The origin of this meaning 
is traceable, most unmistakably, to fidizTio. It is an intruder 
within the domain of fianri^io, and, as such, should be uncere- 
moniously dismissed. 

2. Plunge, sink, overflow, are traceable to pam'to as among 
the accidents of form through which it secures its essential 
demand of condition; while the attributing of such accidents 
to the essence of the word, involves the absurdity of making 
the same word express many definite acts diverse and contra- 
dictory in form. 

3. On the other side we have pour and sprinkle. These 
forms of action are not the most natural servitors of flairrtZto. 
And yet their competency to fulfil this duty, under favorable 
circumstances, is admitted by some of the ablest Baptist 
writers. But it is in baptisms of influence where these words 
have their just and appropriate use. 

To say that baptism may be by such acts, is to declare a 
truth; but to make $a-ri%ui mean to pour or to sprinkle, is an 
error similar to that inta which those of the other side have 
fallen. 

The explanation of the protracted conflict would seem to 
be a repetition of the history of the struggle beneath "the 
shield with its golden and silver side." 

All the truth has not been in view. 



CLASSIC BAPTISM, 



WITH A VIEW TO ITS BEARING ON 



CHRISTIAN BAPTISM, 



PART I. 



Three centuries have witnessed the continued discussion 
of the meaning of the word £a-r:'£w, and the proper man- 
ner of administering the rite of Christian Baptism. 

One hundredth part of this time would seem to have 
been sufficient to gather together all the materials in- 
volved in such discussion, and to have issued a judgment, 
based upon them, from which there could have been no 
hopeful appeal. And if this has not been done most 
exhaustively, the fact is marvellous; but if it has been 
done, it is no less marvellous that the judgment reached 
has not compelled universal acceptance. 

The mind is not at liberty to accept or to reject the truth 
when presented distinctly before it, with its evidences; it 
must accept it. 

In examining this subject, with exclusive reference to 
personal instruction, it has appeared to me that the in- 
vestigation has not been, adequately, carried out in certain 
directions. This has arisen, doubtless, from the little 
promise which seemed to be held out of valuable results 
from such inquiry. Sometimes, however, our anticipa- 
tions receive favorable disappointment. It may be so in 

(21) 



22 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

this case. And I submit the results gathered up, not only 
along the main route of inquiry, but in some of its less 
fully explored collateral branches, in the hope of assisting 
to a final and generally acceptable judgment. If I shall 
fail to make the best use of the materials furnished, more 
skilful hands may take them and find their labors crowned 
with greater success. 

There is a large and respectable class of persons who 
will consider this whole inquiry a work of supererogation. 
They say that the work has been clone, well done; all the 
truth has been evolved, and that now " it is not so much 
light that is needed as honesty." 

So fully convinced are we of the "honesty" of these 
persons, that we accept it, at once, with or without their 
affirmation; and because we do, gladly place ourselves 
within the clear shining of their "light," hoping that no 
"lack of honesty" will either cloud our perception or 
silence our confession. Wisdom and duty alike demand 
that we should pursue this course. If absolute truth has 
been already reached through the labors of others, it will 
be less laborious to pass over a path already trodden, and 
to examine results already wrought out; and if these re- 
sult are luminous with uncolored truth, as they are said 
to be, then it is a privilege and a duty cordially to accept 
them. 

This course I propose to adopt. If the course of inves- 
tigation and results reached, by our Baptist brethren, are 
beyond impeachment, after due examination, then our 
task will be ended; but if otherwise, then even they will 
confess that " light " may be sought at some other source 
without necessarily abandoning " religious honesty." 

BAPTIST POSTULATES. 

Baptist writers demand the acceptance as verities, by all 
lovers of truth, of certain general results reached by them 
in their investigations. 

Among these are the following : 



SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON. 23 

I. Bax-iZu), throughout the entire course of Greek literature, 
has but one meaning, which is definite, clear, precise, and easy 
of translation. 

This proposition is not self-luminous with truth. The 
demand for its acceptance, therefore, cannot reasonably be 
expected to follow on its mere enunciation. Apology for 
this hesitancy may be found in the fact, that if this propo- 
sition embodies a truth, it is a very unusual one. Few 
things are more rare in the history of language than to 
find a word used by a cultivated people for ages in the 
same absolute sense. In farther vindication of this hesi- 
tancy, allow me to present the following quotation from 
Sir William Hamilton : 

"And here it is expedient to take into account two 
circumstances, which mutually affect each other. The 
first is that the vocabulary of every language is necessarily 
finite, it is necessarily disproportioned to the multiplicity, 
not to say infinity, of thought; and the second, that the 
complement of words in any given language has been 
always filled up with terms significant of objects and rela- 
tions of the external world, before the want was experi- 
enced of w r ords to express the objects and relations of the 
internal." 

" Either words of a language must each designate only 
a single notion — a single fasciculus of thought — the multi- 
tude of notions not designated being allowed to perish; or 
the words of a language must each be employed to denote 
a plurality of concepts. ... Of these alternatives, the 
latter is the one which has been universally preferred; 
and, accordingly, all languages by the same word express 
a multitude of thoughts, more or less differing from each 
other." — Logic, p. 436. 

My object, now, is not to disprove the above postulate, 
but merely to look at it as the fruit of Baptist labors, and 
see whether it carries on the face of it justification for the 
bold demand which it makes for acceptance. The impres- 
sion made is, that farther evidence, and a good deal of it, 
is needed to make good such a point. 



24 CLASSIC BAPTISM., 

II. Ba7CTiZa> and fid*™ have precisely the same meaning, dye- 
ing excepted; in all other respects, whether as to form, or force, 
or effect, they differ neither more nor less. 

This proposition constitutes another demand for accept- 
ance on the ground of unquestionable truth. We are com- 
pelled, however, again to hesitate. And in apologj^ we 
offer this query: Is it usual for language to repeat itself? 

If it be true that all nations have been compelled, 
through the paucity of words, to use " each one to denote 
a plurality of concepts," is it not something for wonder 
that the Greeks should employ two words to express the 
same identical conception ? 

2. "We remember, also, that we have been asked, here- 
tofore, to adopt this same proposition without any excep- 
tion. It may be that complete truth has not been 3-et 
reached, and that the list of exceptions will go on to in- 
crease until these words shall be found to be in harmony 
with that broad law of language — one word for many 
concepts, but not two words for one. 

3. We are not sure that all possible differences between 
these words have been well considered. Points of resem- 
blance may, through prepossession for a certain conclusion, 
have claimed an attention which induced unconsciousness 
of existent differences. " Words are often employed with 
a plurality of meaning, several of which may quadrate, or 
be supposed to quadrate, with the general tenor of the 
discourse. Error is thus possible ; and it is also probable, 
if we have any prepossession in favor of one interpretation 
rather than another." — Sir W. II. Logic, 437. 

Baptist writers are not the only ones who may be sup- 
posed to "have a prepossession in favor of one interpreta- 
tion rather than another" in the case before us; but I 
suppose they can hardly claim exemption from this dis- 
turbing influence. 

HI. Ba-Kti^o) expresses an act, a definite act; mode, and noth- 
ing but mode; to dip. Bar.™ {primary) expresses an act, a 
definite act; mode, and nothing but mode; to dip. 



BAPTIST POSTULATES. 25 

Before giving in adhesion to the demand for an acknowl- 
edgment of the identity of these words as expressed in 
this concrete form, I would like to know whether the 
various phases assumed by the class of verbs to which 
they belong have been maturely considered in their bear- 
ings upon both, separately and jointly. 

Active transitive verbs admit of numerous subdivisions 
possessed of characteristics by no means unimportant. 
Among the divisions will be found, 1. Words which, di- 
rectly, express action. 2. Words which, directly, express 
condition. 

Baptist writers say that the two words under consider- 
ation belong to the former of these classes and not to the 
latter. Has this ever been proved? Has it ever been 
attempted ? Possibly ; but if so, it has never come under 
my notice. And as there is no self-evidencing power in 
the statement, I must hesitate in my faith. 

Words which, directly, express action are still farther 
divided into, 1. Words which express action, generally. 
2. Words which express action, particularly. To the 
former of these classes belong such w T ords as to do, to loork, 
to move, &c. To the second class belong to dig, to roll, to 
speak, and the like. 

To this latter class, it is said, fid-ru) and fiaTrriZcu must both 
be attached. But has this ever been, distinctively, proved? 
Suppose that we should be willing to admit that one of 
them, /fo'rrw, for example, did belong here, but felt some 
embarrassment in making such admission as to the other; 
is it unreasonable to ask to be relieved from pressure on 
this point until some proof shall be adduced? 

Farther; among words which express action in some 
definite form, there are, 1. Those which express action 
characterized by rapidity and force. 2. Those which are 
marked by comparative slowness and gentleness. To the 
former belongs plunge. To the latter belongs dip. When 
Baptist writers say that /S«-rw and fiarM'u} mean " to dip," 
do they mean, understanding^, to say that they belong to 
a elass of verbs characterized by a movement " slow and 



26 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

gentle," and not to that class which has the elements 
of " rapidity and power ?" They cannot belong to both 
classes. If Baptist writers have failed to mark this dis- 
crimination, and have failed to test, by usage, the true 
classification of each of these words, they must not be 
astonished if there is questioning, instead of unqualified 
acceptance, of their conclusions. 

But what shall be said of that very large class of words 
which does not express, immediately, action either def- 
initely or indefinitely, and therefore neither powerfully 
nor feebly, but which expresses, directly, result, state, con- 
dition f Such as to put, to set, to lay, expressive of condition 
as to place; to pen, to surround, to inclose, expressive of con- 
dition characterized by some encircling material ; and to 
cover, to bury, to whelm, expressing condition marked by 
envelopment on all sides ? 

As verbs which embody an act represent power, greater 
or less, through the act which they indicate; so verbs 
which shadow forth condition denote influence, greater or 
less, through the nature of such condition. 

To place an object momentarily within a fluid, is to 
place it in a condition where the influence exerted upon 
it will be of the feeblest character. To place an object 
within a fluid element, indefinitely, is to place it in a con- 
dition where the influence exerted upon it will be of the 
strongest possible character. 

To dip is an act by which the former condition is effected ; 
to merse is a condition of the latter kind effected by any 
competent act, the nature and form of which are undefined 
and of absolute indifference. 

These classes of words are separated from each other by 
a great gulf, so that there is no passage from the one side 
to the other without an essential change in the nature of 
the word. 

Have Baptist writers maturely considered these distinc- 
tions, and come to a critical judgment, in view of a full 
induction of facts, that ^dr,rm and ^anzilu) do neither both 
nor either belong to verbs of condition, but do both belong 



BAPTIST POSTULATES. 27 

to verbs expressive of action, and more limitedly to verbs 
expressive of definite action ? 

If they have so done, I know not where they have hid- 
den the fruit of their labors, and until these shall be re- 
vealed I plead against the demand to accept a conclusion 
which ignores the existence of a class of words which are 
in nature and development radically different from " an 
act, a definite act; mode and nothing but mode; to dip." 

TV. Ba-rtZoi has the same meaning in figurative as in literal 
2ise, always referring to the act of dipping. 

Subscription to this demand, as truth, may be given or 
withheld according to the idea attached to the " figurative" 
use of language. Words are sometimes used in connec- 
tions where literality of meaning is impossible, and yet 
where it is no less manifest that it is designed to place the 
literal use vividly before the mind for greater effect. In 
such cases of transference of words from physical to meta- 
physical relations, in order to awaken the intellect by 
unwonted combination, and thus produce a profounder 
effect; the word carries its meaning with it, and produces 
its awakening effect only because it does convey such 
meaning. 

But where words once used in material relations are 
now used in immaterial, and that every day, and without 
design on the part of the speaker to utter figure, and by 
reason of familiarity incapable of producing any such im- 
pression on the mind of the hearer, — in a word, the simple, 
necessary, universal tropical use of words should not be 
considered as figure. 

If, however, Baptist writers insist that such prosaic use 
of language must be dignified by the title of figure, we 
must wholly decline the acceptance of their proposition. 
Its contradictory proposition, fta-z£io, never carries into 
secondary or tropical use, unmodified, its primary or literal 
use, is nearer the truth. This must be so in the nature 
of tilings. Words in trope and metaphor make meanings 
for themselves, and the same word is variously modified 



28 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

in meaning, to fit in the various relations in which from 
time to time it finds itself. And when the special friends 
of /Sa-rttw run for a solution of every tropical and meta- 
phorical use to the water, they will find that such course 
will he suggestive largely, to others, of the ridiculous and 
the absurd, as well as the impossible. 

The tropical or secondary use of words is of great value 
as reflecting light back upon the primary use. And as 
it is true in language, as well as in everything else, that 
an original divergence is made increasingly manifest the 
farther progress is made from the starting-point, words 
whose divergence was not so manifest in primary, literal 
use, will reveal it more strikingly as they pass on to meta- 
phor, trope, and secondary use. 

In general, words which literally are directly expressive 
of action will be employed in metaphor to denote force, not 
physical but mental and moral ; and words which literally 
are directly expressive of condition, find their use in meta- 
phor to denote influence. 

Some words, while expressing a definite act, carry with 
them some result inseparable from that act. The second- 
ary use will develop sometimes one, sometimes another 
aspect of such words. To this class belongs dip. Its 
secondary use gives prominence sometimes to the act, 
sometimes to the effect of the act, alway s characterized by 
feebleness and limitation. If at any time it appears to 
pass beyond these boundaries, the explanation will be 
found in some adventitious circumstance, in the nature of 
the object or the character of the element; not, therefore, 
inherent in the word. 

The secondary use of merse never stands related to any 
form of act, but is always used to express the development 
of influence in the fullest measure of which the case will 
admit. 

The contrast between dip and merse is absolute. 

As we shall have largely to do with the secondary use 
of /9a-r£tw, it seemed desirable, at once, to bring it into 
prominent view, with distinct intimation of the different 



BAPTIST POSTULATES. 29 

value attached to it, compared with that maintained by 
Baptist writers. 

It is admitted, on all hands, that words once used figur- 
atively may cease to have a figurative use ascribed to 
them. The ground of this change is to be found in fre- 
quency of use, and the attainment thereby of power to 
express a modified thought of their own. Home Tooke 
and others have shown that all of our prepositions, con- 
junctions, adverbs, adjectives, and abstract substantives, 
are referable to nouns or verbs, describing sensible ideas. 
These words, in their first use, had all the vividness and 
force of figure; but they have so no longer. 

Whenever a word or phrase becomes so familiar in form 
or application as no longer to be suggestive, to speaker or 
hearer, of physical, ideas, but conveys, on enunciation, an 
idea of its own, it ceases, in fact, to be figurative, and we 
should cease to treat it as such. 

There are cases in which we may feel embarrassment 
whether to assign a secondary or a figurative meaning to 
a word or phrase. 

Take an example which happens to be, this moment, 
under my eye. 

" Had Mr. Harris and others, instead of diving deeper 
than they had occasion into Aristotelian mysteries, con- 
tented themselves with observing plain facts, they would 
soon have perceived, .... Whereas, in the way they 
proceeded, their labor was immense, and "... — Dicers, 
of Parley, xiii. 

Xow, the form of the phraseology, " diving into Aristo- 
telian mysteries," is fully figurative, and if its words be 
considered disjunctly, "dive" can only be regarded in its 
literal sense, and "Aristotelian mysteries" as an element 
into which " Mr. Harris" plunges head foremost. And 
some might say that this must be and is the only way in 
which it can be treated. Let us see. Consider, 1. That 
such phraseological combinations are exceedingly com- 
mon. 2. Such familiarity of use educates the mind to 
put aside the physical picturing, and to see only the 



30 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

thought which is the outgrowth of that picturing. 3. Such 
phrases come to have the force of compound words, in 
which its several parts are no longer to be treated as dis- 
tinct words, but only as syllabic parts of one whole, con- 
veying a new idea. 4. It is extremely doubtful whether 
any physical picture of " Mr. Harris entering head fore- 
most into Aristotelianism," was for a moment before the 
mind of the writer, or intended to be conveyed to the 
mind of his reader. There is every reason to suppose that 
the conception before his mind was identical with that 
which he subsequently expresses by saying " their labor 
was immense" and this should govern the interpretation. 
The origin of the phrase is another matter. Any one 
who chooses to treat such language as figure will find in 
it all the materials necessary for his purpose; and, on the 
other hand, any one who prefers to regard it as a familiar 
and organic combination, possessed of unity and self-ex- 
pression, will have no lack of material for his vindication. 
It is wholly immaterial which view is adopted, so far as 
sentiment is concerned. The sentiment reached is the 
same. 

Before leaving this subject, it may be well to remark 
th?t, while "diving into Aristotelian mysteries" may and 
does well express "immense labor," dipping into them 
neither does nor can, by any possibility, express any such 
idea, but directly the opposite. On the other hand, mer- 
sion in those mysteries would express, not the idea of 
" immense labor,' 9 but of complete influence proceeding from 
this form of Aristotleism, and affecting "Mr. Harris and 
others" by its controlling power. 

As already remarked, dive, primarily, expressing action 
characterized by rapidity and force executed head fore- 
most, passes, secondarily, to express mental activity, " im- 
mense labor;" while merse, expressing, primarily, no form 
of force, but pointing to condition of intusposition, comes 
to denote, secondarily, not activity of mind, but the recep- 
tion by it of controlling influence. I cannot accept the 
Baptist position that " pencriZm has no secondary meaning; 



COUNTER PROPOSITIONS. 31 

but is exclusively employed in a primary, literal, and in a 
figurative sense, without any modification of import; al- 
ways meaning, literally and figuratively, to dip, and noth- 
ing but dip." On the contrary, I cannot but regard such 
statement as error, and nothing but error. 



PKOPOSITIONS TO BE SUSTAINED BY PKOOF. 

Over against these four postulates, nakedly assumed, or 
assumed without adequate proof, I would place four other 
propositions, for which no other acceptance is asked than 
that which may be secured by satisfactory proof. 

The statement of these propositions is now made briefly 
and incompletely, to be filled up hereafter, that the mind 
may have something definite to rest upon as the inquiry 
progresses. 

They are as follows: 

I. Bd-rat, in primary use, expresses a definite act characterized 
by limitations — to dip. 

II. In secondary use 7 " Dip" expresses a limited mental force, 
and a limited effect. 

The Greek language does not furnish us, so far as I am 
aware, with exemplifications of this secondary (metaphor- 
ical) use; but it is found in connection with the corres- 
ponding words in the Latin and English languages. 

III. Ba-riZio, in primary use, expresses condition characterized 
by complete intusposition, without expressing, and with absolute 
indifference to the form of the act by which such intusposition 
may be effected, as, also, without other limitations — to merse. 

IV. In secondary use it expresses condition the result of com- 
plete influence effected by any possible means and in any con- 
ceivable iuay. 

If anyone should be disposed to imagine that between 
those postulates and these propositions there can be no 
such difference as to revolutionize results, let such idea be 
held in abeyance until we patiently trace these differences 
to their ultimate conclusions. The mathematician who 



32 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

found in his calculations a steadily diminishing element, 
and concluded that it might safely he assumed as ulti- 
mately disappearing, and, therefore, might safely be ne- 
glected, was disappointed in the result reached. E"o error 
being visible, and the verity of figures being proverbial, 
the difficulty was inexplicable. At length he determined 
to take up that supposed vanishing quantity, and follow 
it on until it should, in very deed, merge into nothingness. 
In so doing, however, he found, to his great surprise, that 
as it dijiped into the outer rim of zero, it refused to go 
farther; but returned upon its path, becoming a steadily 
increasing quantity, with power adequate to control the 
mathematical result. 

Assumption is dangerous, whether in logic or mathe- 
matics. 

Let us assume nothing in this inquiry as too unimportant 
to be investigated ; and we may find that even the differ- 
ence between "dip" and "merse," when faithfully followed 
out, becomes no vanishing quantity, but a growing incre- 
ment, with power to control, happily and satisfactorily, 
our investigation. 

BAPTIST WEITEES. 

As preliminary to a direct investigation of the subject 
before us, it seems to be desirable, on many accounts, to 
institute an examination of Baptist writings, to see how 
far they illuminate and sustain their favorite postulates. 

If they do squarely and harmoniously maintain them 
not only in thesi, but do unfalteringly bear them, challeng- 
ing criticism, " through all Greek literature," then they 
will, at least, win the not ignoble award of consistency and 
courage; but if, on the other hand, it shall be found, that 
between postulates and writings there is no harmony; that 
between writer and writer there is as little harmony; that 
the pages of the same writer compared with each other 
perpetuate this disharmony; that there never has been an 
attempt by any one writer, through these three hundred 



WHAT DOES BAIITIzn MEAN ? 33 

years, to carry these postulates " through all Greek litera- 
ture;" that the burden which they would bind upon others 
they utterly refuse to bear themselves; then we may hope 
that such facts will be deemed a fair apology for declining 
this Baptist postulation, and a sufficient justification for a 
direct inquiry after that great desideratum — a meaning 
of ida-TiXw, which may be carried, without fear and without 
reproach, through all Greek literature. 

In examining Baptist writings there must be some limit- 
ation. It is not practicable to go over all such writings, 
nor is it necessary to go back indefinitely as to time ; I will, 
therefore, limit myself to writers of representative and 
generally accredited character, and to that period which 
has elapsed since Baptist views were introduced into this 
country. 

WHAT DOES BAnTizfl MEAN? 
"It means to dip, and nothing but dip." 

Eoger Williams and Tractate of A. B., 1G44. 

Eoger Williams has not left us, so far as I am aware, 
any formal writings of his own on this subject; but while 
he was on a visit to England, there was a treatise pub- 
lished, which he brought back with him and introduced 
into this country, and which, therefore, may be accepted 
as embodying his own views. 

This work was designated as a " Tractate by A. E., 
London, 1G44." The title which it bore was, "Dipping is 
Baptizing, and Baptizing is Dipping." Whether the defin- 
ition thus given by this tractate be true or not, all must 
admit that it is "definite, clear, and precise, 5 ', and thus 
harmonizes with the postulate. AVe are not merely told 
baptize and dip are equivalents, nor yet that they are 
counterparts, duplicates, but that the one is the other, and 
the other is the one; that they are identical. The attire 
differs, in the one case Grecian, in the other case English; 
but under that attire, in either case', appears the self-same 
personage. 

3 



34 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

Beyond this, for definiteness, clearness, and precision, 
definition cannot go. These words do, respectively, ex- 
pound each other in the most universal and absolute man- 
ner. Whatever differs from dip, differs, in like manner, 
from baptize; and whatever differs from, or agrees with, 
baptize, does, in like manner, differ from and agree with 
dip. There is neither deficiency nor excess in the one 
compared with the other. As a foot is twelve inches and 
twelve inches are a foot, so baptize is dip and dip is baptize. 

Now, so far from objecting to this sharpness of defin- 
ition, we feel unfeignedly grateful for it; definition and 
postulate do most admirably echo each other, and thus our 
task is simplified and assisted. 

The friends of the Baptist scheme claim it as a glory 
that its doctrines are unambiguous, its definitions are pre- 
cise, and that its ritual service demands an act which is 
definite and absolute. Such characteristics, apart from 
the question of the truth of the scheme to which they 
belong, are highly meritorious. If they belong to a system 
of truth, they will, thus, best abide assault; and if with 
what is erroneous, the error will receive most speedy and 
patent revelation. 

fWhile Baptist writers give a testimony one and unam- 
biguous, we will give them full meed of praise. Now, we 
thank " A. R." for his " definite, clear, and precise" utter- 
ance, announcing that " Dipping is Baptizing, and Bap- 
tizing is Dipping." 

"A. Baeber, his Treatise of Dipping." 

This was another publication issued at London in the 
same year with the preceding. Its title is less full and 
perspicuous, but has nothing inconsistent with the other. 
They were both, doubtless, intended to present the same 
front as to one single, exclusive, and universal meaning. 

That this identification of Dipping and Baptizing was 
fully recognized at the time by opponents, will appear 
from a publication issued in London, 1645. The author 



BARBER — DR. GALE. 35 

of this work was Dr. Featly. It was avowedly an answer 
to " A. R." An extract will show that the issue made, — 
" Dipping is Baptizing, and Baptizing is Dipping," — was 
controversially accepted. 

Dr. Featly thus writes: "But the question is, whether 
no other baptizing is lawful ; or whether dipping in rivers 
is so necessary to Baptism, that none are accounted bap- 
tized but those who are dipped after such a manner? This, 
we say, is false ; neither do any of the texts alleged prove 
it. It is true, dipping is a kind of baptizing; but all bap- 
tizing is not dipping. The apostles were baptized by fire, 
yet were they not dipped into it. Tables and beds are 
said to be baptized; that is, washed, yet not dipt. The 
Israelites in the wilderness were baptized with the cloud, 
yet not dipt into it. The children of Zebedee were to be 
baptized with the baptism of blood wherewith our Saviour 
was baptized, yet neither he nor they were dipt into blood. 
Lastly, all the Fathers speak of the baptism of tears where- 
with all penitents are washed, yet there is no dipping in 
such baptism." (pp. 45, 50.) 

This quotation is made, not for the sake of its argument 
(that is not our business now); but to show that the assault, 
whether successfully or unsuccessfully, is fairly delivered 
against the position — " Baptizing is Dipping, and Dipping 
is Baptizing." 

Whether, then, we look at the language itself, or at the 
interpretation given to it on its enunciation, all must admit 
that the Baptist position in London, in 1644, and thence 
transferred to Rhode Island by Roger Williams, was most 
unequivocal. 

Dr. Gale. London, 1711. 
1 Dipping only is Baptism." 

More than half a century after A. R., Dr. Gale thus 
writes : "We cannot believe that it is so doubtful in sacred 
Scripture as many pretend, whether dipping only be bap- 
tism." (p. 93.) 



36 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

" To baptize, L e. dip 'em by affusion or sprinkling." 

This phraseology is used by Gale to show an absurd use 
of terms. He says, " It is absurd to speak of baptizing by 
sprinkling, because baptizing is dipping." 

" The word baptize necessarily includes in its signification 
dipping, and that Christ by commanding to baptize has com- 
manded to dip only." (p. 94.) 

" The primary meaning is simply to dip." (p. 95.) 

"I don't remember one passage where all other senses 
are not excluded besides dipping." (p. 96.) 

" Though; the genius of our language may oblige us 
sometimes to render paxri'to to wet, or wash, or dye, &c, 
it is most absurd to infer that it, therefore, signifies any- 
thing else besides or different from to dip/ 7 (p. 186.) 

Whatever of bluntness or of blunder there may be in 
this language, it is largely redeemed by its heartiness of 
faith. 

" Christ, by commanding to baptize, has commanded to 
dip only." All other senses are excluded. To doubt 
whether the Scriptures so teach is to be guilty of false 
pretence. To conclude that a word which we are obliged 
to translate wet, wash,, dye, &c, can mean anything else 
thai, dip, is most absurd (!). 

Such language show s r unmistakably, that it was by faith 
that Dr. Gale proclaimed that " only" meaning, while 
deeply enveloped in clouds and darkness. "With manful 
courage he holds on to dip while sorely (it may be "ab- 
surdly") struggling with "wet,, and wash, and dye, $c." 

As coming events cast their shadows before, we may, 
herein, also find a foreshadowing of unity entangled amid 
diversity, to be a future and fruitful source of perplexity 
to our Baptist friends.. 

Whether " wet, wash, dye, &c," are meanings of this 
word, I do not now inquire; but whether or not, the ques- 
tion is equally pertinent — What must be the ideas of 
language entertained by that man who feels " obliged" to 
translate a word by these terms, while he believes that it 
has no such meaning at all? 



ABRAHAM BOOTH. 37 

Abraham Booth. London, 1711. 
M The primary sense of the term is to dip/' 

The "venerable Booth" appears as a writer somewhat 
more than three-fourths of a century after the learned Dr. 
Gale. 

He thus writes : " When our Lord says, * go, baptize,' he 
speaks the language of legislation; he delivers Divine 
law. Does Jehovah make use of a term which properly 
signifies dipping? He means as he speaks, and requires 
immersion. That dipping, pouring, and sprinkling denote 
three different acts, we have many examples in the writ- 
ings of Moses." (pp. 81, 82.) 

" While Pcodobaptists maintain that our great Lawgiver 
intended anything less than dipping,'" (p. 95.) 

" I do not, indeed, recollect so much as one learned 
writer, in the whole course of my reading, who denies 
that the primary sense of the term is to dip." (p. 125.) 

Mr. Booth is confident and precise in these utterances, 
and generally harmonious with himself and his predeces- 
sors. The exception to this harmony is found in the 
statement, that when "Jehovah uses a term that signifies 
dipping'" (and "He means as He speaks," yet) "He requires 
immersion.'''' 

Now, this new word introduces a note of discord. Mr. 
Booth has not proved that " dipping is immersion, and 
immersion is dipping." The proposition is not self-evi- 
dentiy true. On the contrary it is most evidently untrue. 
These terms are not only devoid of identity, but they do 
not belong to the same class of words. This, however, is 
not the time to enter into a full examination of the points 
of difference. I only, therefore, remark that " dipping" is 
characterized, essentially, by limitations in all directions, 
while " immersion" is as essentially destitute of them. 
The position of Booth, then, i3 that when Jehovah com- 
mands a result full of limitations, he requires a result 
destitute of all limitations! This jar, by reason of the 



38 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

introduction of " immersion," added to " wet, wash, dye, 
&c," induces the feeling that the "one only meaning" 
holds its position by but a precarious tenure. However, 
we must content ourselves, for the present, by simply at- 
taching to this notable passage an N.B. 

"F. A. Cox. London, 1824." 
" The idea of dipping is in every instance." 

After the lapse of a third of a century we meet with 
Dr. Cox. 

This writer, in common with his predecessors, believed 
that pdTtra) and fiarai^a) not only had some elements in com- 
mon, but that they were most absolutely equivalents; 
indeed, that the greatest difference between them was that 
the one word was spelled with two, and the other with 
three syllables. He interchanges them at will*, and quotes, 
indifferently, passages where the one word or the other is 
found as equally to the purpose. 

Dr. Cox informs us, that " the idea of dipping is in every 
instance conveyed; and no less so by all the classical cur- 
rent uses of the terms (/SaTrrw and ^a-xi^m) in question.''' 
(p. *S.) 

Having quoted a number of passages in which dip is 
given as the translation, he adds : " Numberless other 
passages of the same kind might easily be introduced, 
were it at all needful; let these, however, suffice as speci- 
mens of the undoubted use and current acceptation of the 
contested terms." 

This utter confusion of these words, so long persisted in 
by Baptist writers, notwithstanding all the evidence to the 
contrary, is now, I believe, universally abandoned so far as 
relates to dyeing. The acknowledgment of this error, so 
long and so earnestly maintained, might lead, one would 
suppose, to some reserve in maintaining that these diverse 
words are in all other respects identical. But this still 
remains as an acquisition of truth to be attained in the 
future. Let us hope, not in the far distant future. 



COX — CARSON, 39 

It is very evident that Dr. Cox gives his clear testimony 
to the undoubted use, " in every instance," scriptural and 
classical, of ftd~Tw and iSa-r^w, as conveying the meaning, 
to dip. 

How much this conclusion may have been affected by 
the confounding of these words with each other, and by 
the transference of the meaning of ftd-Tco to 0ojrreCa>, I do 
not in on ire. To point the finger toward so weak a point 
is sufficiently suggestive, and will prevent any thoughtful 
person from embracing conclusions which are founded 
on it. 



Alexander Carson, LL.D., Baptist Board of Publication. 
Philadelphia. 1853. 

" My position is that it always signifies to dip ; never expressing any- 
thing but mode." " To dip or immerse.'' 1 u It never means to dye." 

Dr. Carson thus quotes from Dr. Gale : " I think it is 
plain from the instances already mentioned, that they 
{fid-rut and pariT^u)) are exactly the same as to significa- 
tion;" and then expresses his own opinion thus : " As far 
as respects an increase or diminution of the action of the 
verb, I perfectly agree with the writer. That the oiu is 
more or less than the other, as to mode or frequency, is a 
perfectly groundless conceit. Bdnrio has two meanings, 
the primary to dip, the secondary to dye : /Sa-rc'C^, in the 
whole history of the Greek language, has but one. It not 
only signifies to dip or immerse, but it never has any other 
meaning." (p. 19.) "If we dip an object in any way, we 
cause it to dip or sink." (p. 20.) " The mode essentially 
denoted by it." " Baptism means to lay under water." 
" This was a large object that was not supposed to be 
taken up and dipped, but to be caused to dip, as it were, 
by sinking." (p. 21.) "It is strictly univocal." (p. 23.) 
" The proof is equally strong with reference to fta-r^u. 
My position is that it always signifies to dip; never ex- 
pressing anything but mode." (p. 55.) 

Dr. Carson's writings mark an era among Baptist authors 



40 CLASSIC BAPtlSM. 

as to the accepted meaning of fiar-lZu). They had, heretofore, 
refused to acknowledge any difference whatever between 
this word and pdTtrai, but from the time of Dr. Carson's enun- 
ciation, that the one word presided over the mysteries of 
dyeing, while the other was excluded from all participation 
in them, the doctrine was promptly and universally ac- 
cepted. Dr. Carson does not attempt to show why the 
work of dyeing fell to the lot of one word rather than 
another ; on the contrary, he would have us believe that 
the distinction was wholly without reason; because "it is 
a perfectly groundless conceit to suppose that the one is 
more or less than the other." 

Such ratiocination makes another severe demand on 
our faith. It was hard to believe that two words, native 
born, existed in the same language without any difference, 
" either more or less;" but this we were asked to believe. 
We are now asked to believe, that of two such words one 
secures a secondary meaning while the other utterly fails, 
without reason assigned or assignable, seeing that the two 
are identical in "mode," and "force," and " frequency," 
&c, &c. 

Now, we do not say that both or either of these state- 
ments present an impossibility; but there is so much of 
incredibility about them that, in the absence of reason, 
there should be the most conclusive evidence of fact. 

There has been, absolutely, no evidence to prove that 
Pa*™ and (3a7TT%o> " differ neither more nor less" in their 
primary meaning; and consequently there has been no 
evidence to show that fid-rut has secured its secondary 
meaning, without reason and in a purely arbitrary man- 
ner. We can accept of neither of these positions, and the 
necessity for their assumption brings down a double and 
damaging blow against the Baptist system. 

But not only is this admission of Dr. Carson of a differ- 
ence as to secondary meaning, like the letting out of water 
which threatens to sweep away his scheme; but it is no 
less matter for sinister foreboding that he feels the neces- 
sity of introducing into the severely simple definition of 



ALEXANDER CARSON. 41 

his predecessors a pregnant " or/' qualifying, also, the 
primary meaning. It is, indeed, most true that there is 
no acknowledgment of valuable service rendered by tins 
particle, while the whole book is made to rest upon it. 
"Whatever Dr. C. may think, others will not consent to his 
slipping away from the " definite, clear, and precise" defini- 
tion, "baptizing is dipping, and dipping is baptizing," into 
"dip or immerse ," "or" something else. If it be affirmed 
that to dip is to immerse, and to immerse is to dip, we 
reply, with a quiet smile, then this redundant " or im- 
merse" will only be an incumbrance, therefore indulge us 
with its dismissal. But if " or immerse" be admitted to 
be anything "more or less" than dip, what becomes of the 
postulate — "one meaning through all Greek literature" ? 

So long as Dr. Carson declares that " PoxtiXm has but one 
meaning in the whole history of the Greek language, that 
it is strictly univocal, that mode is essentially denoted by 
it, that increase or diminution of action of the verb com- 
pared with Paz™ is a groundless conceit, that it always 
signifies to dip ;" this is all clear and self-harmonious, and 
mingles with, without clouding, the earlier pellucid Bap- 
tist testimony. But when he goes on to say: " It not only 
signifies to dip or immerse;" "if we dip an object itfkny 
icay, w t c cause it to dip or sink;" " caused to dip as it were 
by sinking;" "baptism means to lay under water" &c, &c, 
we are fairly bewildered, and cannot imagine what Dr. 
Carson can be thinking of. 

What conceivable unifying bond subsists between " dip 
and nothing but dip," and " dip in any way" " dip or im- 
merse" " dip or sink" " dip or lay wider water"! So long 
as the utterance is — baptizing is dipping, and dipping is 
baptizing, consistency is maintained; when this takes the 
multiform shape, " dipping, or immersing, or sinking, or lay- 
ing wider water — is baptizing," the one meaning has van- 
ished. 



42 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 



E. Fuller, D.D., Charleston, Southern Baptist Board of 
Publication". 1859. 

Dip, sink, plunge, immerse. 

Dr. Fuller, in entering on his work, makes loud and 
earnest proclamation, like his predecessors, of the act of 
baptism and one definite meaning; which act and which 
meaning is to be found nowhere save in such verbal 
iteration. 

He says : " In all translations of classical works fta-rgu 
is rendered dip, immerse. In short, the translators of our 
Bibles have themselves exposed the pretext, that there is 
any difficulty as to the word. In the case of ISTaaman, the 
Septuagint uses fiaTZT&aj, and the translation renders it dip." 

(pp. 10, 11.) 

" In Greek, the addition of zo rather enforces than 
diminishes the primitive word. And just so fia-LTu), to dip; 
fia-Tga), to make one dip, that is, to immerse. 

" Where the ordinance is mentioned, paxrZa) is always 
the word; and never was there a word whose meaning 
was more clear and precise." (pp. 12, 13.) 

" From these examples it is manifest that fiarMlu) means 
to immerse. If any one attempts to contradict this argu- 
ment, let him meet it fairly and honestly." (p. 17.) 

Dr. Fuller gives as a caption to his book — " the act of 
Baptism" — showing that he set out to advocate some def- 
inite and exclusive act as belonging to ritual baptism. 
This lie supposed, at the outset, to be very clear and 
precise, as is manifest, from his saying, on the second 
page, " Jesus says, he that believeth and is baptized shall 
be saved. To charge him with wrapping up his meaning 
in obscure phraseology is impious ; it is to accuse him of 
the enormous guilt of the Eoman tyrant," &c. For a while 
it seemed as though this definite act was to be represented 
by dip (inasmuch as the Doctor approves of the rendering by 
" our translators" from the Septuagint!); but, like others 
of his friends, he finds it for some reason convenient to 
say one thing and do another. lie gives fourteen classical 



FULLER — RIPLEY. 43 

quotations to establish the meaning of j3a-TiZ<u, announcing 
that it is manifest that it means, not dip, but immerse. 
But what is strangest of all is, that this manifest meaning 
(in which there is no definite act at all), he never gives as 
the translation of any one of his fourteen quotations, but 
introduces dip, sink, and plunge. Are these four terms 
the same in " form and force," " neither more nor less," 
representing each, alike and equally, the one, definite, 
modal act of baptism ? If not, why put shame on an in- 
quiry which purports to make proof of such act by the use 
of such contrariant terms ? 

If we turn from.this confusion to seek " the act of bap- 
tism" in that meaning indicated by Dr. Fuller's philology 
— baptize, to make dip — our search is all fruitless. This 
discovery having been made by the help of zo, it would 
seem to be regarded as too precious to be used, for never 
again does it appear throughout the book. 

Notwithstanding, therefore, "there never was a word 
the meaning of which was more clear and precise," Dr. 
Fuller seems to be at a loss which to choose amid dip, 
and make to dip, and sink, and plunge, and immerse, in 
order to mark " the act of baptism," which, as appears 
from the title of his book, he was anxious to accomplish. 

Prof. Ripley, Newton Theological Institute. 1833. 
To dip, its radical, proper meaning. 

Professor Ripley pays deferential regard, in definition, 
to the traditional meaning, to dip. 

lie translates; "the sword was so dipped as even to be- 
come heated," remarking, "Should the reader stop to think 
dipped into whatf How instantaneous and how irresistible 
the reply, into the blood." The meaning, dipped, is not 
forced or inappropriate, (p. 19.) 

My business, now, is not to question interpretations, but 
to let Baptist writers speak and make out, if they can, a 
prima facie case for themselves, indicating, as they pass 
along, only such difficulties as appear on the surface. 



44 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

Again he remarks: " One of which sorts was performed 
by the clipping of the hands into water, and this was prop- 
erly expressed by the peculiar term (£ajrn'C«>) which he has 
employed. If so, this word is here used in its radical, 
proper meaning." (p. 42.) 

This " radical and proper meaning" is announced only 
to be rejected on the succeeding page. 

It would, surely, take the seven wise men of Greece to 
render a reason justly defensive of such procedure. 

Others, less wise, will be tempted to think that theory 
suggests one course, while the exigencies of truth con- 
strain to the other. « 



J. L. Dagg, Churcti Order, Southern Baptist Publication, 
Charleston. 1859. 

' ' To immerse. ' ' 

Professor Dagg quotes some fifty passages containing 
the word pdtrcto, each of which he translates by dip. He 
also quotes a still larger number containing the word 
/SflBrr^w, each of which he translates by immerse. 

Unless the Professor is charged with acting very un- 
reasonably, while he aets very systematically, we must 
conclude that these persistent differences in translation 
are intended to denote real differences in the words trans- 
lated. And this conclusion is well founded; although the 
difference appears to be imperfectly apprehended and in- 
adequately stated. 

We are told, " the termination gat is, with greater prob- 
ability, supposed by others to add to the primitive word 
the signification of to cause or to make, like the termination 
ize in legalize, to make legal. According to this hypothesis, 
if fidxTio signifies to immerse, ^aizriZai signifies to cause to be 
immersed. This makes the two words nearly or quite 
synonymous." 

Not "nearly or quite," but absolutely, according to Pro- 
fessor Dagg's explanation of this causality. Baxra) causes 
its object "to be immersed," and parMZio, according to the 



DAGG STOVEL. % 45 

explanation, does precisely the same thing. The explana- 
tion is faulty. It makes /?«?:-£«> causative not of fid-Tw but 
of the immersion, over which (SditTw is itself already causa- 
tive; and so only repeats that word. To be truly causative 
of t 3d-7(o, it must reach the cause which puts pdxraj into 
operation ; that is, it must cause some person to dip. 

Of more value is the statement — " pdiztu) more frequently 
denotes slight or temporary immersion than £a7tr£a>. Hence 
the English word dip, which properly denotes slight or 
temporary immersion, is more frequently its appropriate 
rendering. In nearly one-half of the examples in which 
fta-rtXio occurs in the literal sense, it signifies the immer- 
sion which attends drowning and the sinking of ships." 
(p. 33.) 

The Professor here fairly touches the nerve of truth with- 
out fully laying it bare ; yet sufficiently so to send a shock 
through all the Baptist system. If /?«--«> signifies " an 
immersion which is slight and temporary ;" and if paitri'io sig- 
nifies "an immersion which is profound and enduring;" 
what becomes of the dicta, "baptizing is dipping, and dip- 
ping is baptizing" — " one meaning, dip or immerse" — " that 
the one is more or less than the other is a groundless con- 
ceit"? 

If Professor Dagg is right, the postulate which demands 
equality "in form, and force, and effect," for these words, 
is all wrong. 

C. Stotel. London, 1846. 
11 It means, caused the people to dip." 

" Ba-rLXio, is causal of fidirrw. The baptizing of John, 
might have been performed entirely by other hands under 
John's direction. The sense of the original must be re- 
tained in the causal form of the verb; and if it be right 
to say, let Lazarus dip the tip of his finger in water, it 
cannot be wrong to say, John caused the people to dip, or 
to be dipped in water." 

Whether Mr. StoveFs philological principles be right 



46 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

or not, he seems disposed to apply them right honestly. 
While Drs. Carson, Fuller, and Dagg all unite in making 
f3axriZ<o causative of /Sobr™, they all unite, also, in declining 
to apply the principle. They still represent the one as the 
alter ego of the other. They were aware that if made 
really causative, it could find no exemplification in Scrip- 
ture facts. I dip, expresses an act which I perform. I bap- 
tize, if causative of to dip, would make the act expressed 
by that word to be done by some other person. Now, 
this Mr. Stovel acknowledges, very justly, for good reason- 
ing, but very awkwardly for the history of ritual baptism. 
He should, however, have gone a step farther, and said, 
not only that John might have stood by while he baptized, 
to wit, caused the people to dip themselves or one another, 
but that he must have so done. "For it cannot be wrong 
to say, John caused the people to dip (themselves), or to 
be dipped (by one another), in water," seeing that it is 
said, u let Lazarus dip the tip of his finger in water"! 

Novelties in this controversy are rare; but Mr. Stovel 
seems disposed to treat us to such an exhibition. Whether 
it will tend to the gratification of his friends ; or whether 
they will think that his philology carried out elucidates 
thi^t one, definite, precise, clear, and only meaning of 
pmtTi'oi is doubtful. 



M. P. Jewett, A.M. Boston, 1854. 
" To dip, or immerse, and never has any other meaning." 

" Ba-TCa>, in the whole history of the Greek language, 
has but one meaning. It signifies to dip or immerse, and 
never has any other meaning." (p. 13.) 

" In baptism, we are commanded to perform the act 
represented by the word baptize." 

In the first of these quotations, Prof. Jewett repeats the 
language of Dr. Carson. In the second, he reiterates a 
declaration handed down from mouth to mouth, without 



DIP — PLUNGE — IMMERSE. 47 

apparent consciousness of its import, or that its utterers 
were under obligation to conform to it. 

To affirm, in the critical discussion of a word which is 
declared to he the most precise of all words, and whose 
value has been determined to a hair, that it means dip or 
immerse, is of all extraordinary things the most extra- 
ordinary. 

If it be, indeed, true that Baptizo, in the whole history 
of the Greek language, has but one meaning; and if it be, 
indeed, true that Jewett and friends have found out what 
is that meaning; then, why not tell us what it is? "Why 
give us such Delphic utterance as — it means this; or if it 
does not mean this, then it means that; but if it does not 
mean that, then certainly it does mean something else! 

Will an attempt be made to rebut this condemnation 
by the assertion that dip and immerse have but one mean- 
ing in the whole history of the English language? Such 
a line of defence would be bold, hazardous, desperate, but 
the exigency is great ; let it be tried. 

While waiting the issue of such effort, we will venture 
to say that such clay-iron definition, persisted in through 
long years, repeated by unnumbered authors, and in con- 
tradiction to cherished and fundamental postulates, caiyiot 
proceed either from defective knowledge or through over- 
sight; but must proceed from some unrevealed and dire 
necessity. 

DIP— PLUNGE— IMMEKSE. 

It may be worth while to ask and obtain an answer to 
the question — Are Baptist writers, while using these terms 
avowedly to express a meaning which is " one, definite, 
precise, clear," aware that these terms do not and cannot 
express any such meaning ? 

Let them answer for themselves. First, hear "the ven- 
erable Booth." 

" The reader needs only to clip into a Hebrew or Greek 
Lexicon, into Ainsworth's Latin, or Johnson's English 
Dictionary, to be convinced of this. I have just dipped 



48 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

into the works of such an author. Now this, far from 
signifying that I feel my mind, as it were, immersed in the 
author's writings, only means, as Johnson tells us, that I 
have entered slightly into them." — Posdobaptism, vol. i, 
pp. 115, 123. 

Surely Booth was aware that dip and immerse could 
not express one and the same meaning, whatever may be 
the fact with regard to others. But he did not stand alone. 
We have but to call to mind the language of Professor 
Dagg to see distinctly stated that primary, literal use of 
dip, in which this figurative use of Booth is grounded. 

" Bd--a> more frequently denotes slight or temporary im- 
mersion." Here, in the trivial effect which must follow 
upon "a slight and temporary immersion" in any physical 
element, we see the most satisfactory foundation laid for 
the expression of an extremely limited knowledge of an 
author, by saying, " I have merely dipped into his writ- 
ings." 

On the other hand, Dagg says: " pa-ziZa> signifies the 
immersion which attends drowning or the sinking of 
ships." And he might have added: "In the whole his- 
tory of Greek literature" fia-ru) is never once employed to 
denote such immersion. By such characteristics as attend 
on immersion unlimited (unlimited as to the depth to 
which it penetrates, and unlimited as to the time of its 
continuance), immerse becomes perfectly adapted to ex- 
press, as is done by Booth in figure, the extreme opposite 
of dip, namely, thorough engagedness in the study of an 
author. 

Who could imagine that writers so conversant with these 
differences would ever venture to ask any one, in a critical 
controversy, to adopt, as the meaning of a word, a word 
which they affirm has but one meaning, dip or immerse? 

But what do Baptists think of plunge ? Is there author- 
itative sanction for making it co-ordinate with dip and 
immerse in expounding fiaxTtZto ? And if so, do they re- 
gard all these terms of " the same form and force" ? 

In regard to the first of these inquiries, an answer is 



DIP — PLUNGE — IMMERSE. 49 

found in " the 40th article of the Confession of Faith 
of those churches which are commonly, though falsely, 
called Anabaptist," which says: "The way and manner 
of dispensing of this ordinance the Scriptures hold out to 
be dipping or plunging." This testimony is two centuries 
old. It has, however, received constant reaffirmation dur- 
ing all this interval. A single exemplification of which, 
representative of all, may be found in the following lan- 
guage of Dr. Cox: "Dipping, plunging, or immersing, is 
the unquestionable, settled, and universally admitted prim- 
itive signification." 

Hear, now, Booth, as to the fitness of these three terms 
to express with equal absoluteness one precise meaning: 
"Dr. Williams uniformly contrasts bis chosen verb purify, 
with the term plunge; as if that had been the expression 
most commonly used by us. But this, notwithstanding 
his boasted candor, is very unfair. For he knows that it 
is not the verb to plunge, but the word immerse, that is 
usually adopted by us on this occasion. He, also, knows 
that the term plunge does not signify, merely, to immerse; 
but suddenly and violently to immerse; for which reason 
we do not think it the most eligible word by which to 
render the enacting term baptize. On the verb active, to 
plunge, Dr. Johnson says: 'This word, to what action 
soever it be applied, commonly expresses cither violence 
or suddenness in the agent, or distress in the patient.' 
Xow, it should seem that, for this very reason, Dr. Wil- 
liams made choice of the term plunge, rather than im- 
merse or dip, in order to give a ridiculous air to our 
sentiments and practice." — Animad. on Ed. Williams. Lon- 
don, 1792, p. 316. 

Most strange complaint on the part of this venerable 
man! Dr. Williams "uniformly" employs plunge to ex- 
press the meaning. And is this to be urged as a ground 
of complaint by those who postulate uniformity of mean- 
ing " through the whole history of Greek literature"? It 
signifies, "suddenly and violently to immerse;" therefore 
we do not think it the most eligible word by which to 






50 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

render baptize." But who selected this word ? Was it not 
the Baptist " Confession of Faith,' 7 which said, "plunging 
is the way and manner of dispensing this ordinance taught 
in the Scriptures"? Was it not Dr. Cox, representing a 
host of others, who said, " plunging is the unquestionable, 
settled, and universally admitted primitive signification'' 1 ? 
And now shall it be said, to use this word as the exponent 
of baptize is " very unfair," and is clone " in order to give 
a ridiculous air to our sentiments and practice"! Surely 
the charge of unfairness, and of purpose to ridicule, rests 
not on Dr. Williams; but on those who for generations 
have insisted that plunge was the meaning of that word 
which is declared to be of unresolvable simplicity, and 
without the shadow of a change through a thousand years. 

If harsh complaint is to be preferred because an " oppon- 
ent made choice" of an alternative meaning, why is such 
alternative meaning held forth, page after page, by Booth 
himself, as well as by others? Why say dip, or immerse, or 
plunge, or — , if an opponent to whom such language is ad- 
dressed is "very unfair" to notice it? Would that Baptist 
writers, instead of employing defining terms "most com- 
monly," or speaking of such as are " usually adopted," and 
finding fault with a "uniform" use for a declared univocal 
word, might be found aiming at consistency by settling 
down on some word which they would venture to carry 
through all Greek literature. But while we have been told 
through hundreds of years that pa--%<a has but one mean- 
ing; that that meaning is clear and precise; that difficulty 
in translating is pretence; still it remains an ominous fact, 
that no Baptist writer has ever ventured io give us the 
exponential translating word, vindicating his judgment by 
a uniform application to all cases of use. We must have, 
sooner or later, a long procession of terms whose only uni- 
formity is their interlinking vinculum " or." 

But while plunge, thus tried, is found wanting, Booth 
thinks, " our sentiment and practice" would not be put to 
shame by the use of "dip or immerse."' Unhappily for 
this conclusion, "dip," since Booth's day, has fallen into 



DIP — PLUNGE — IMMERSE. 51 

no little disrepute among its once ardent admirers. And 
the plea might again be presented — a not usually adopted;" 
and the complaint made of " unfairness," and of a purpose 
to make the subject " ridiculous;" if an opponent should 
" uniformly" use this petite and undignified word. 

It is important to bear in distinct remembrance that 
plunge was discarded because of its essential and distin- 
guishing characteristics; " effecting an immersion sudden!}/ 
and violently." Is dip to be discarded on similar grounds, 
to wit, because of its essential and distinguishing charac- 
teristics, which are, as Dagg informs us, " superficial and 
temporary immersion?" It would seem to be even so. 
And, thus, while Booth repudiated plunge, because it 
made both " our sentiments and practice ridiculous," 
while his successors have discovered that clip must be 
thrown into the background, because uniformly applied 
to " the sentiment" it would make classic Greek " ridicu- 
lous;" still it must be kept at hand for " practice," as 
otherwise Baptist baptism cannot be administered. Thus 
we have a word which, e confesso, cannot be applied to the 
usage of fta-zt'Cco^ made the sole, sovereign arbiter in ad- 
ministrative baptism. 

I say that this hopeless break down of dip is a matter 
of confession. Without multiplying testimony, one or two 
instances may suffice as representatives of many. 

Prof. Dagg gives as the uniform translation of ,%-rw, to 
dip. He does not give this word as the translation of 
fiaTcrgat in a single instance. Why is this ? It was not of 
accident; for he tells us that it was of design. It was not 
because he regarded the different words employed as of 
the same value; for he expressly tells us that they were ot 
widely different value. It was not because it was a matter 
of indifference to the system which he advocates; for the 
Baptist system lives or dies as dip does or does not rep- 
resent paicrgto. Why, then, such translation? The only 
answer that can be given is — Prof. Dagg thus confesses 
that "the sentiment" that dip expounds parciZa, must, in 
the face of Greek usage, be utterly abandoned; while in 



52 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

the face of Baptist " practice" claimed to be founded on 
paxTtXw, it must, imperatively, be retained. 

Hear, also, Dr. Fuller. Dr. Carson had said of this 
word, " It is strictly univocal. My position is, that it al- 
ways signifies to dip." And in a sea-coast baptism, by the 
rising tide, he declared with unflinching courage, that the 
word in such a ease had the meaning to dip just as much 
as in any other. But Dr. Fuller, on the same passage, 
with fainter heart, remarks : "A fourth passage is pro- 
duced to show that ^a^zi^aj does not always denote the 
act of plunging (or dipping). My position is that paicT%a> 
means to immerse."' (p. 29.) Thus these doctors flatly an- 
tagonize each other.. The one affirming, " My position is 
that pa-xl^u always signifies to dip," and manfully protect- 
ing his protegS under difficulties; while the other, alarmed 
at the inrolling billows, exclaims, "My position is that 
^aTzri^o) means to immerse," and abandons clip to a hope- 
less sea immersion. Thus dip perishes amid the conflict 
of its friends. 

" THE ACT OF BAPTISM— THE ACT IS IMMERSION." 

While Dr. Fuller discards "the act of plunging," and 
with it the act of dipping, he fondly imagines that immerse 
will more than make up this double loss,, and furnish to 
him " the act of Baptism," which will never "make ridicu- 
lous our sentiments or our practice." 

This welcome and much-needed auxiliary he finds, and 
with exultation announces thus: "-It is as plain as the sun 
in the heavens that the act is immersion." 

It must have been a remarkably cloudy day, and the 
solar position singularly uncertain, when Dr. Fuller made 
this comparison. Mathematical calculation can locate "the 
sun in the heavens," even amid clouds and darkness; but 
how the ingenuity of Dr. Fuller can locate act in " immer- 
sion," so as to give it definiteness, clearness, precision, 
modality, remains to be seen. 

When the Doctor speaks of "the act of immersion" 



. IMMERSE. 53 

bathed in solar effulgence, he must mean to designate some 
definite act, if he meant to speak anything to the purpose. 
He is ensealed in rebutting an argument addressed against 
the Baptist position — fimniZtB expresses a definite act — and 
in doing so assails those definite acts, plunging, dipping, 
which are selected by the advocates of the system. Dr. 
Fuller finds the argument against these acts unanswerable, 
and he seeks escape from absolute defeat by abandoning 
these long-cherished representatives, and falling back 
upon the support of a new auxiliary — " the act of immer- 
sion." In doing this there is no avowal of abandonment 
of the principle of the system, namely, definite act, but only 
of the specific acts, plunging and dipping, in the place or 
which he offers the definite act which is exhibited in " im- 
mersion." We are, therefore, compelled to suppose that 
Dr. Fuller wishes to be understood as still maintaining, 
while in fact abandoning, the theory that fiaxriZw expresses 
a definite act. Such holding on and letting go of a vital 
point in argument cannot be allowed. Plunging expresses 
a definite act; but Dr. Fuller frankly says that will not 
answer as the one definite act of all Greek literature. 
Dipping expresses a definite act; but this too, (we may 
believe with profound regret,) he declines to adopt. '* Im- 
mersion" no more expresses a definite act than does "point 
no point" express a sharply defined headland. It expresses 
definite condition, not -definite action. And Dr. Fuller, 
in saying "the act is immersion," imitates "the Roman 
tyrant," whom he condemns for " wrapping up his mean- 
ing in obscure phraseology. 1 ' 



IMMERSE— A EEFUGE FROM THE DIFFICULTIES OF 
MODAL ACTION. 

Dr. Fuller is not singular among Baptist writers in seek- 
ing refuge in " the act of immersion" from the inextricable 
difficulties which invest the definite act theory. It is of 
primary importance that we should understand the fact 
and the necessity for such retreat, as, also, the true nature 



54 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

of that place of refuge to whose protection they have made 
appeal. 

That " immersion" is a shelter into which the friends 
of the definite act system have been driven from other 
untenable positions, is made most certain by a glance at 
the history of this controversy. 

A. R., the friend of Roger Williams, says nothing about 
" immersion." With him, " Baptizing is Dipping, and 
Dipping is Baptizing." 

The Baptist Confession of Faith, two centuries old, does 
not speak of " immersion." It says : " The way or manner 
of dispensing this ordinance the Scriptures hold out to be 
dipping or plunging." 

But Dr. Cox began to awake to a consciousness that 
these definite acts, unaided, could not bear the burden 
laid upon them. He, accordingly, without discarding 
them, associates with them immerse. He declares that 
" dipping, plunging or immersing, is the unquestionable, 
settled, and universally admitted primitive signification." 

Booth, under controversial pressure, is more outspoken, 
complaining that " plunge gives a ridiculous air to our 
sentiment and practice; immerse is usually adopted by us." 

Dr. Conant says : " The Bible Society for which I have 
the honor to labor, has adopted as its fundamental prin- 
ciple the faithful translation of every word; the literal 
meaning of this word, its true and only import, is to im- 
merse" And yet, notwithstanding the lifting up of so just 
and noble a standard; and notwithstanding all the breadth 
and sharpness of this language, Dr. Cox does formally 
define that word whose "true and only import is to im- 
merse" by dip and plunge. What can be that inexorable 
necessity which thus constrains Baptist writers to write 
down such univocal definitions only to turn the stylus and 
blot them out ? 



BAPTIST DOUBTS AS TO "THE DEFINITE ACT"' THEOEY. 
The embarrassment of our Baptist friends is strongly 



"THE DEFINITE ACT." 55 

exhibited by the doubt suggested by some of their best 
writers, whether, after all, they have got hold of the true 
meaning of pairrfZiD, and by the earnest antagonism with 
which such suggestion has been repelled. 

Dr. Gale uses this language: "Besides, the word pairefZw, 
perhaps, does not so necessarily express the action of put- 
ting under water, as in general a thing's being in that 
condition, no matter how it comes so, whether it is put 
into the water, or the water comes over it, though, indeed, 
to put it into the water is the most natural way, and the 
most common, and is, therefore, usually and pretty con- 
stant^, but it may be not necessarily implied." 

It is obvious that this view, suggested, hesitatingly, by 
Dr. Gale, revolutionizes the Baptist view as to the mean- 
ing of ila-ri'co. A word which "expresses the action of put- 
ting under water," and a word which "expresses a thing's 
being in that condition" are separated from each other by 
essential difference of nature. They belong to different 
classes of verbs. The one designates an act, the other a 
condition. If any one should be disposed to say, that this 
difference is of no moment as to this investigation, I would 
answer: 1. Xo such judgment should be pronounced until 
the distinction has been thoroughly traced to its results. 
2, That whether it should be found changing results or 
not, it is a confession that the Baptist view of the character 
of the word was essentially erroneous. 3. Dr. Carson did 
not regard the difference as unimportant, but lifts up an 
earnest cry of "treason!" immediately upon its enuncia- 
tion. He feels that the setting up, thus, of condition 
against act is to pierce the heart principle of the system 
— "act, and nothing but an act" — in the house of its 
friends. He thus comes to the rescue; "Dr. Gale was 
induced to suppose that it docs not so necessarily express 
the action of putting underwater, as that the object is in 
that state. But this is evidently inconsistent with the mean- 
ing of the word." (p. 20.) 

""When this word is applied to an object lying under 
water, but not actually dipped, the mode essentially de- 



56 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

noted by it is as truly expressed as in any other instance 
of its occurrence." (p. 11.) 

Dr. Carson's courage is admirable. He unflinchingly 
affirms mode, while admitting that there is none. 

The courage of Dr. Cox is not so heroic. He yields to 
that strong pressure which drew from Dr. Gale a qualified 
confession of error as to the meaning of the word, and 
with far less reserve concedes the untenableness of the 
position that fiaarrgto expresses modal action or act at all, in 
contradistinction from condition. This writer always pro- 
ceeds on the assumption that ftdxTO) and paxviZw are absolute 
equivalents. In his interpretation of Daniel 4: 33, he at- 
taches no importance to the fact that it is the former and 
not the latter word which is used; but remarks: "The 
verb does not imply the manner in which the effect was 
produced, but the effect itself; not the mode by which the 
body of the king was wetted, but its condition." 

This exposition is enforced by an appeal to other words, 
e.g., to hurt, to burn, to drown, none of which expresses modal 
action, but condition only. He then continues : " The state 
of the body is intended as having been drenched with dew; 
signifying the condition of having been drenched; as being 
burnt with lightning, or in a conflagration, would mean 
the state of being burnt, which resulted from the accident 
or visitation of fire." 

Such views, casting utterly away the "perhaps" of Dr. 
Gale, appeared to Dr. Carson so grievous, that he deter- 
mined "to settle the question though it should occupy some 
pages." (p. 36.) He will not tolerate any departure from 
modality — " If all the water in the ocean had fallen on him it 
would not have been a literal immersion. The mode would 
still be wanting." On this passage in Daniel, Dr. Gale hav- 
ing remarked, " Hence it appears very clear, that both Dan- 
iel and his translators designed to express the very great 
dew Nebuchadnezzar should be exposed to," Dr. Carson 
pronounces what is so "very clear" to Dr. G. to be, in fact, 
"very absurd;" thus, "Dr. Gale absurdly supposes fidK-cto 
means to cover with water without reference to mode, and 



i^c/^^^^ j£a+^ s -£,«?<?, 



57 

at the same time metaphorically alludes to dipping." Let 
all who revere the name of Carson take notice, that to 
make a word which expresses condition, also to express 
action, is to act "absurdly." His opposition to Cox is no 
less uncompromising. To his remark — "a body exposed 
to Eastern dews would be as wet as (/"plunged into water," 
he replies : " This leaves the mode unaccounted for. With- 
out doubt the verb here expresses mode as well as any- 
where else. To suppose the contrary gives up the point 
at issue, as far as mode is concerned." Again let it be 
noted that, Carson being judge, to abandon the idea of 
modal act in /Soared, is to abandon the Baptist system, 
which is founded in modality. 

Farther, in reply to the argument of Cox from the word 
hurt he says: "Nothing of manner is here expressed, and 
for an obvious reason; nothing of manner is expressed in 
the verb. But will Dr. Cox grant that this is the case with 
the verb pd-rio f If he does, about what is he contending? 
Bd-za) not only necessarily implies mode, but literally ex- 
presses nothing but mode. Mode is as much expressed 
here as it is in the commission of our Lord to his apostles."' 

Dr. Carson clearly and boldly hazards his system on the 
merits of modalism in action, rebuking the fainthearted- 
ness and disloyalty of his associates. 

With what consistency the Doctor binds fid-ru down, with 
iron clamps, to modalism in Daniel, and yet refuses, on 
other occasions, to allow it to be restrained by so much as 
a gossamer thread, others may determine; I exhibit the 
facts. Dr. Gale had taken the ground in relation to dye- 
ing with coloring matter, which Carson takes respecting 
wetting with dew; to wit, that the modal act of dipping 
was necessarily involved. This position is thus sharply 
criticized by his friend: " AVhat does the learned writer 
mean when he expresses a doubt of the propriety of this 
usage (?. e. fidm-to dropping mode)? Does he mean that 
such an extension of the meaning of words is in some 
degree a trespass against the laws of language? But such 
a usage is in strict accordance with the laws of language; 



58 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

and the history of a thousand words sanctions the prac- 
tice. Use is the sole arbiter of language; and whatever 
is agreeable to this authority stands justified beyond im- 
peachment. Bd-rw signifies to dye by sprinkling, as properly 
as by dipping, though originally it was confined to the 
latter." 

Dr. Carson is a study! When his friend Gale trembles 
at the consequences of admitting that fiaxru} may signify 
to dye, still more that it may signify to dye by sprinkling, 
and stoutly affirms that it has no such meaning, " but al- 
ways implies and refers only to its true, natural significa- 
tion, to dip;" then, Carson interposes, declaring that /?«--«> 
can mean, and does mean, to dye, nay, "to dye by sprinkling 
as properly as by dipping;" but when it is said that fid-rco 
may mean to wet (to wet by sprinkled dew-drops), without 
dipping, then fid*™ not only " necessarily implies mode, 
but literally expresses nothing but mode." How a word 
which "expresses nothing but mode" — to dip — can yet 
mean to dye by sprinkling, while it cannot mean (by reason 
of its modalism) to wet by sprinkling, is a mystery left un- 
solved. "Use stands justified beyond impeachment," ex- 
cept a bill of indictment be drawn by Dr. Carson ! 

; But notwithstanding Dr. Carson's positiveness, and his 
declared purpose " to settle the question though it should 
occupy some pages," he has failed to carry conviction to 
the minds of some of the ardent friends of the Baptist 
system. 

Morell abandons Carson and goes over to the side of 
Gale and Cox, thus : " That the word patTrtiZm uniformly sig- 
nifies to dip I will not venture to assert, or undertake to 
prove. I believe, however, that it is pretty generally ad- 
mitted, on both sides, that the word does mean to dip; 
that this is its generic meaning, and its most usual mean- 
ing. But it appears quite evident that the word also bears 
the sense of covering by superfusion. This is admitted by 
Dr. Cox, who says, ' A person may be immersed by pour- 
ing; but immersion is the being plunged into water, or 
overwhelmed by it. Was the water to ascend from the 



59 

earth, it would still be baptism were the person wholly 
covered by it.' Thus far we surrender the question of im- 
mersion, and in doing so feel no small pleasure in finding 
ourselves in such good company as that of Dr. Cox." (p. 
1G7.) 

"Will our Baptist friends turn the edge of their ridicule 
from others, and try its edge upon their friend Morell, as 
he now affirms that "a person may be baptized, immersed, 
by pouring'"? Is "clipping by pouring" (so long made 
the butt of ridicule) any more facile of execution in the 
hand of a friend than of an opponent? Or, having ac- 
cepted from Carson, what was so long rejected when 
proffered b} 7 others, that fid-rto does not merely mean to 
dip, but to dye by sprinkling; will they accept from Morell, 
as simple verity, what was so ridiculously false when stated 
by opponents, to wit, that baptism is not dipping, that im- 
mersion is not dipping, and that baptism by pouring, or 
immersion by pouring, is not "obscure phraseology em- 
ployed for the purpose of covering up the absurdity of 
dipping by pouring" ? "Whether or no, we have a house 
divided against itself; a general "surrender thus far of 
the question of immersion." 

Morell is one of the fairest of opponents, and we will 
not abuse his candor by perverting his surrender. He 
does not give up immersion, but he does give up dipping 
as necessary to it. But on sober second thought he will, 
no doubt, find that, having " surrendered" so much, he 
has not surrendered enough. The admission that /?«~C^ 
does sometimes mean, not to dip, nor to put into an ele- 
ment, but to immerse (that is, to secure intusposition with- 
out regard to act), does necessitate the conclusion that 
f'o-r^u) does never mean a modal act — to dip. " Dipping by 
sprinkling," the performance of one modal act by a diverse 
modal act, is not more patently absurd than that the same 
word should express a modal act and an immodal act; or 
a modal act and a result, without designating any form 
of act by which that result was effected. 

But let us pass on to a farther development of Baptist 



60 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

testimony to the "one, clear, precise, and definite mean- 
ing" of this word. 

Dr. Fuller thus testifies : " A fourth case is presented 
by Pcedobaptist authors from Aristotle. It is produced to 
show that fianriZw does not always denote the act of plung- 
ing. My position is that fia-zXaj means to immerse. It 
matters not how the immersion is effected." (p. 29.) 

" Suppose a man should lie in the baptistery while it is 
filling. The pouring of the water would not be immer- 
sion, yet an immersion would take place, if he remained 
long enough." (p. 31.) 

Again we have the use of the word "immersion," as 
expressing a thought wholly dissevered from the form of 
the act inducing it, whether that form be pouring, or 
plunging, or sprinkling; for "if a man should lie in the 
baptistery long enough," under the act of sprinkling, "an 
immersion would take place." And yet it is the same 
writer who speaks of "the* act of baptism being the act 
of immersion," which act of immersion is said to be " as 
plain as the sun in the heavens" ! 

Well, then, in the light of this dictum we must even 
believe that " the act of baptism" is the act of immersion, 
which act is that of plunging, or pouring, or sprinkling, 
either of which will " baptize the man who lies in the 
baptistery long enough" ! 

Whether Dr. Fuller has added to the clearness, the 
simplicity, and the precision of the one definite act of bap- 
tism by his " plain as the sun" position is quite doubtful. 

One word as to the incongruous use of immerse and 
immersion by Drs. Fuller and Carson. The latter says, 
fia-T^u has but one meaning; that meaning is one of mode, 
and nothing but mode, which mode is definitely expressed 
by dip — " dip or immerse." Now, these words must be 
used as the absolute equivalents of each other, or shame is 
poured over all the pages wherein they appear. But Dr. 
Fuller does most expressly antagonize to clip and to plunge, 
by to immerse. He argumentatively rejects the definite 
act as not expressing the meaning of fia-KTLXu), and takes, 



"THE definite act." 61 

instead, to immerse, as destitute of all expression of definite 
act, proclaiming as Lis position, "It matters not how the 
immersion is effected." "Immersion may be by pouring," 
but pouring never produces dipping or plunging. 

That such use of these terms is in utter contradiction, 
the one .of the other, I need not say " is as plain as the sun 
in the heavens;" but it is important to say that no notice 
is ever given by Baptist writers of such contradictory 
usage; while the use, now in one sense and now in another, 
is met with everywhere, not only in different writers, but 
in the pages of the same writer. 

To these writers — Gale, Cox, Morell,. Fuller, all in the 
front rank of Baptist scholars — who have been constrained 
by the stress of testimony to abandon the long-cherished 
definite act theory y " mode and nothing but mode," must 
be added the certainly not less eminent name of Conant. 

Dr. Conant presents for embalmment,, in the " new ver- 
sion" of the holy Scriptures, neither the definite act to dip, 
nor the modal act to plunge, but the same word, " to im- 
merse," in which Fuller and friends seek refuge when 
compelled " thus far to surrender the question of immer- 
sion." The foreign origin of this word and its composite 
character throws around it an indefinite penumbral char- 
acter, which is its qualifying merit as a retreat from the 
long-honored, but no longer tenable, position of " one 
clear, precise, definite act through all Greek literature." 

Henceforth, our business is to dissipate this penumbra, 
and to show that when its outlines are sharply lighted up, 
there is no more within it a place of refuge for the Baptist 
theory, than has been found in the abandoned dip and 
'plunge. 

But the views of Dr. Conant — the latest, the most elab- 
orate, as well as every way qualified investigator of this 
subject — demand special consideration. 



62 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

"THE MEANING OE BAimza." 
T. J. Conant, D.D., American Bible Union. New York, 1860. 

Too much praise cannot be accorded to Prof. Conant 
lor the exhaustive labor which he has bestowed upon the 
collection and accurate exhibition of all passages in which 
§ar,xi%ot is found. It gives me great pleasure to acknowl- 
edge my indebtedness to him for quite a number of pas- 
sages, after having devoted the leisure intervals of some 
years to securing such a collection; as, also, for the cor- 
rection of some errors of quotation. Indeed, so well sat- 
isfied have I been of the accuracy of Dr. Conant, and 
oftentimes of the greater accessibility of the editions re- 
ferred to by him, that I have, throughout, conformed my 
quotations and references to his, on a review; this inquiry 
having been, substantially, completed before meeting with 
his treatise. 

Dr. Conant has not been satisfied with the mere collec- 
tion of materials, but has made them the subject of very 
elaborate study. He has felt that a large responsibility 
was resting upon him, and he spared no pains to acquit 
himself well under it. And he has done so. None will 
question the honesty of his purpose, the fulness of his 
labor, or the adequacy of his scholarship, however much 
they may differ from him in some of his views. 

The results reached generally by Prof. Conant may be 
accepted as sufficiently correct for all ordinary purposes 
of language, while, with a special application to the Baptist 
system and its sharp demands, their accuracy may be ques- 
tioned and their essential modification be demanded. 

HIS ACCORD WITH THE BAPTIST THEORY. 

The orthodox Baptist view of the meaning of pa-riZa), 
undoubtedly, is that it expresses a clear, precise, and def- 
inite act; which act has been expressed in a thousand 
treatises, and in every ritual service, by the word dip, 
through more than two hundred years. 



ACCORD WITH THE BAPTIST THEORY. 63 

Dr. Conant seems to adopt the theory that this word has 
but one meaning-, and that that meaning is an act, a def- 
inite act. This is his language : 

".This word is rendered into English — the translation 
expresses its true and only import." " The word pa—l'io, 
during the whole existence of the Greek as a spoken 
language, had a perfectly defined and unvarying import." 
M The constant usage of Greek writers, and the only rec- 
ognized meaning of the word." " The simple, distinct, 
and corporeal sense to which the word was appropriated 
by unvarying usage." 

This is explicit. The language employed designating 
this meaning as an act, a definite act, would seem to be not 
less so. Take the following : 

" The Greek word fiaxrtZetv expresses nothing more than 
the act of immersion." " This act is performed on the 
assenting believer — and this distinguishes it from all other 
acts of life — the act expressed by the same word is a super- 
stitious Pharisaic ceremony — the act designated by the 
word in all these cases is the same." " The act which it 
describes was chosen for its adaptation to set forth by 
lively symbolism the ground thought of Christianity.'' 
" The name of the element in which the act it expresses took 
place." " The other acts with which it is compared in the 
New Testament." " The daily and hourly repetition of 
the act in common life which it described." 

Can language like this be read with any other feeling 
than that Dr. Conant casts in his lot with those who 
declare that, " one meaning, a clear, precise, and definite act 
reigns through all Greek literature?" This conclusion is 
confirmed by more full and explanatory statement; — "with 
the preposition into before the name of the clement into 
which an object is plunged or immersed expressing fully 
the act of passing from one clement into another." "The 
verb fia-rt'Cio, immergo, has, in fact, but one sole acceptation. 
It signifies literally and always to plunge." This last pas- 
sage is a quotation (with approval) from another writer. 

We are, then, taught by Dr. Conant that flami'w has but 



64 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

one meaning, that that meaning is an expressed act, a 
definite act characterized by passing from one medium 
into another, and it is distinctively represented by plunge. 

This is all clear and consistent, whether correct or not. 
It has not merely the merit of self-consistence, but is in 
perfect harmony with the ancient and severe definition, 
" Baptizing is dipping, and dipping is baptizing." It 
accords, also, with the more modern exposition of Dr. 
Carson, " dip, and nothing but dip," maintained, theoreti- 
cally, with cast-iron inflexibility: as, also, with the general 
stream of Baptist utterance. 

But this is not all which Dr. Conant says as to the 
meaning of this word, and what he says more mars this 
beautiful simplicity of definition, and introduces a note 
of irreconcilable discord. Like every other Baptist writer 
who has attempted to maintain modal action in the face 
of the facts of usage, Prof. Conant fails to be self-con- 
sistent in his statements. 

He does not distinctly avow a purpose to carry a definite 
act through every case of usage, and therefore recognize 
the obligation, with Dr. Carson, by some catechrestical 
distortion to shape facts after such model; but apparently 
feels at liberty to speak, as circumstances require, in con- 
formity with the modal action of Carson, or the state and 
condition of Cox; all in the name of one, clear, definite, 
and unchanging meaning. 

The evidence of this is found in language like the fol- 
lowing : 

HIS WANT OF ACCORD. 

" The word PortI'siv^ which, by constant usage, expressed 
an entire submersion of the object." " A sense founded 
on the idea of total submergence, as in floods of sorrow." 
" Among the several words, all agreeing in the essential 
idea of total submergence, by which fio.-x-i*ziv may be ex- 
pressed in English, the word immerse has been selected 
for use in this revision." "We speak of a man as im- 
mersed in calamities, &c, always with the idea of totality, 



WANT OF ACCORD. 65 

of being wholly under the dominion of these states or 
influences ... it suggests the clear image of the act on 
which all are founded." 

These statements represent the meaning of par^u) as 
turning wholly upon a state or condition, namely, of" entire 
submersion," while we were previously told that this 
meaning was concentred in an act. These two views do 
not coincide in one clear and precise meaning, but are 
essentially diverse and irreconcilable. The same word can- 
not express both act and condition, although act and con- 
dition may be inseparably united in one word. But in 
such case, act or condition must immediately control the 
word, and hold the other in subordination; both cannot 
be equally expressed. To plunge expresses directly the 
nature of the act which may carry its object into and 
under water; while to swamp expresses nothing, directly, 
of the nature of the act which carries its object under 
water, but gives expression to the condition effected, what- 
ever may have been the nature of the act. 

It is of the first importance that these differences should 
not be lost sight of in determining with critical accuracy 
the meaning of a word, and above all in tracing out the 
development of a word. It would be a forlorn hope to 
expect any just issue in the investigation of the usage of a 
word expressive of condition by a person whose mind was 
full of the idea that it was a word expressive of some 
action. Plunge has a development growing out of its 
peculiarities as an act; swamp, one which is based on 
condition. " I plunge into misfortune;" " I am swamped 
by misfortune;" express ideas essentially diverse. The 
structure of language is controlled by such differences. 
"I plunge into misfortune;" " misfortune swamps me;" 
are diversities of phraseology not accidental, but growing 
out of the essential diversity of the terms. Plunge ex- 
presses the course of action by which misfortune is reached. 
Swamp says nothing of this. As plunge and swamp should 
not be confounded, so, for like reason, act and condition 
should never be confounded ; nor should one word be 



66 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

treated as though it expressed both act and condition, or 
at one time act, and at another time condition. This 
confusion vitiates Dr. Conant's treatise. 

Some Baptist writers have felt, and confessed the im- 
practicability of carrying pa^r^io through its usage as ex- 
pressing an act; but in making this confession they still 
doubly failed of the truth : 1. In not abandoning the idea 
that paucrCCw ever expresses a definite act ; and, 2. In not 
prosecuting the inquiry into the meaning of this word 
under the acknowledgment that its meaning centred in 
condition. 

A portion of these writers met the difficulty by allowing 
the word at one time to mean act, and at another time to 
mean condition, a mending of their error quite inadmis- 
sible; while others chose a word, sufficiently vague, to slur 
over the difficulty. Dr. Con ant appears to combine the 
various views and policies of those who have gone before 
him. He adopts the one meaning, the act, condition, and 
immerse, which is of such facile use now, to express an act, 
and now, to express condition. 

Dr. Conant endeavors to lay a basis for appeal both to 
act and condition, by making both prominent in the mean- 
ing which he assigns to the word. Thus he says: " The 
ground idea expressed by the word, is, to put into or under 
water (or other penetrable substance), so as to immerse or 
submerge." 

By this language, (kacriZw is represented as expressing 
both an act and a condition resulting from that act. "No 
objection can be made to the idea of an act which results 
in effecting a condition; but it is objectionable to make a 
word to distinctively represent both act and condition. 

It may be noted that immerse and submerge, in this 
passage, are both used to express, distinctively, condition 
and not act. The same is true of the use of the same 
words in the following passage: "The object immersed or 
submerged is represented as being plunged, or as sinking 
down into the ingulfing fluid, or the immersing element 
overflowing, and thus ingulfing the object." "Immersed," 



WANT OF ACCORD. 67 

"submerged," "immersing," represent condition; it is im- 
possible to substitute for them words expressive of action; 
the act is performed by " plunging" and " sinking," or 
" overflowing." But if fta-r^w does, by its proper force, 
express the act which belongs to plunge, or to sink, or to 
overflow, then, unless one and the same thing can be an- 
other and a diverse thing, it cannot express the condition 
which belongs to immerse and submerge, or "ingulf" here 
used as the equivalent of immerse. 

But these words are used, very unallowably, to express 
act as well as condition. Ba-rt'io, " with the preposition 
into before the name of the element into which an object 
is plunged or immersed, expresses fully the act of passing 
from one element into another." Here "immerse" is used 
to express, coequally with plunge, " the act of passing from 
one element into another;" vvhile before it was used to 
express condition resultant from the act of plunging. 

Dr. Conant never makes such double and impossible 
use of i^langc; why does he seek to make such, equally 
unallowable, use of immerse? 

While freely acknowledging that " into," used as sug- 
gested, does indicate "an act passing from one element 
into another;" it is by no means admitted that such use 
with /Sa-rcTw shows that such act is to be found in that 
word. "Words which of themselves express no movement 
may, still, be found with into, the word necessary to the 
movement being supplied. Such usage is not infrequent; 
and the explanation given meets with general acceptance. 

That pa—fCw docs not express any definite movement, 
nor any independent movement whatever, " causing its 
object to pass from one medium into another," is conclu- 
sively shown by the use of this word in cases where no 
movement of any kind in the object takes place. 

The sea-coast is baptized by the rising tide; but there 
is no act exercised upon it inducing a movement of the 
coast, "causing it to pass from one medium into another." 

Such usage shook the faith of Gale in the notion of 
movement as inherent in this word, and wholly overthrew 



68 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

that of Cox, wHIe all the billows of the sea could not 
move that of Carson a hair r s breadth. He boldly affirmed 
that movement was as much expressed hy the word in such 
eases, when no movement took place, as when movement 
did take place ; and to admit otherwise was to give up the 
issue. He chicled his friends sharply for their defection, 
and endeavored to encourage them and sustain himself by 
an appeal to some figure of speech. Dr. Carson, no doubt, 
fully convinced himself that when an object was baptized 
without being moved, that still it was said to be moved 
because it was said to be baptized; and baptized " has but 
one meaning through all Greek literature," "expressing 
an act, clear, precise, definite," making its object "to pass 
from one medium into another." His reasoning, however, 
has failed to convince, I will not say his opponents, but 
his friends; for no Baptist writer, following him, has ven- 
tured to stand upon the sea-coast and bid the inrolling 
billow to cease its movement until "the coast" should 
come to it and be lawfully baptized; "passing out of one 
medium into another." 

Dr. Carson,. however, is right when he takes the ground 
that ^aTrrrCa*, if it ever expresses an act of movement must 
always express such act; and if such meaning be aban- 
doned in one case,, it must be abandoned in all. Morell 
cannot sayr "It means, most usually, to dip, while it 
appears quite evident that it, also, means to cover by 
superfusion." So word can express "usually to dip," and 
unusually " to superfuse." If it expresses the one, it never 
does or can express the other; and if, in the usage of any 
word, these and like terms meet together, they must stand 
on the same basis; namely, that the word means one as 
much as the other, in fact, means neither. The fact of 
baptism hj superfusion is admitted by Baptist writers. 
Some saying that baptism by superfusion means baptism 
by dipping; while others admit the fact, but decline to 
work it out to its conclusions, and hold on to a position 
which the admission subverts, namely, "one meaning, a 
definite act, through all Greek literature." 



WANT OF ACCORD. 69 

Dr. Conant is involved in this inextricable embarrass- 
ment when he attempts to sustain " one meaning, express- 
ing fully the act of passing from one element into another," 
while he also says: "The object is represented as being 
plunged or as sinking down into the ingulfing fluid, or the 
immersing element overflows, and thus ingulfs the object." 

If faxriZw, of its own proper force, ever plunges or sinks 
its object, then it never overflows it; and if it ever over- 
flows it, then it never plunges or sinks it; if it does, of its 
own proper force, distinctively plunge and sink and over- 
flow its object, then it embodies a power which can work 
philological miracles; but if plunge, and sink, and over- 
flow meet on equal terms in expounding the usage of this 
word, then Dr. Conant errs when he describes this word 
as representing an "act passing from one element into 
another," for such act cannot be represented by these 
several and diverse terms. 



HIS FORMAL DEFINITION. 

" The word Baptizein, during the whole existence of the 
Greek as a spoken language, had a perfectly defined and 
unvarying import. In its literal use it meant, as has been 
shown, to put entirely into or under a liquid, or other 
penetrable substance, generally water, so that the object 
was wholly covered by the inclosing element. By analogy, 
it expressed the coming into a new state of life or experience, 
in which one was, as it were, inclosed and swallowed up, 
so that, temporarily or permanently, he belonged wholly 
to it." 

In this definition it is noteworthy that act, which has, 
heretofore, in Baptist writings, reigned with such suprem- 
acy, becomes, as to form, an absolutely vanishing quantity; 
and in its undefined obscurity exhausts itself in effecting 
a well-defined condition, which is placed in high relief in 
the foreground as the grand idea. In this, Dr. Conant has 
made decided advance on his predecessors. 

It, also, claims especial attention as a novelty from a 



70 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

Baptist writer, that a second very remarkable meaning is 
assigned to this word, which, as we have been so long 
told, possessed a solitary grandeur, in that, through ages, 
it never swerved from the idea of putting into water. It 
is none the less remarkable, because it appears, now, for 
the first time, as the meaning of this word, and is only 
introduced to our notice to be withdrawn without again 
reappearing. 

It may, however, be made the occasion of again remark- 
ing how absolutely act is discarded as an element of value 
in determining the meaning of paxriZio. We are told that 
this secondary meaning comes "by analogy." Well, there 
are but two elements, act and condition, whereon the 
analogy can rest. On which does it rest ? " Coming into 
a new state of life or experience, so as to be inclosed and 
swallowed up, and belong wholly to it." Where is the 
analogy to act, definite or indefinite, plunge, dip, or, put 
into ? Where is the likeness to plunging, or dipping, or 
putting, in " coming into a new state" f Are we to make 
a point of " coming into" a moral state with putting into 
water ? Well, let us know what is this quo modo, and let 
us see what is the admirable tracery of the analogy. Until 
this is done, we shall rest content with such analogy as 
may be found between the condition of envelopment by a 
physical element and the condition of that moral state, 
wherein those who enter it are wholly subject to its con- 
trol. Others may fill up the picture, at leisure, showing 
the analogy between the act of putting into and the modus 
operandi of moral influence in inducing this "new state of 
life." 

In this definition by the use of " put" — " put into or 
under" — Dr. Conant gives a greater breadth and freedom 
to paxriZa) than any of his friends who have preceded him. 
They have insisted that it meant to dip, to plunge, and 
nothing else. Dr. Conant says, it no more means to dip, 
to plunge, than does "to put;" that is, it means no such 
thing. These, and a host of other words, may act as 
servitors fulfilling the behests of /Sarrt'Cw, while they no 



SECOND DEFINITION. 71 

more, in their individuality, represent the meaning of that 
word than does the swelling frog the stately ox. Ba-rOZw 
exercises a sovereignty over a multitude of words expres- 
sive of action; but no one of its subjects can, by any 
amount of puffing, be made meet to till the place of its 
sovereign. Indeed, there is no light thrown by this word, 
of itself, upon the act by which, in any given case, its de- 
mand may be met. You might as well attempt to learn 
from it the name of the man in the moon, as to seek to 
learn from it the style and title of the act which performs 
a baptism. If any one doubts this, let him tell me, when 
I inform him that a certain Greek was baptized in the days 
of Plato, what was the act by which the baptism was 
effected ? When a truthful answer, gathered from pa-rt'w, 
shall be returned to this question, the respondent may 
boldly approach the sphynx sure of resolving every 



enigma. 



HIS SECOND DEFINITION. 



A more fully developed definition. is furnished, else- 
where, as follows : 

"From the preceding examples, it appears that the 
ground idea expressed by this word is, to -put into or toyier 
water (or other penetrable substance) so as entirely to im- 
merse or submerge; that this act is alwa\>s expressed in the 
literal application of the word, and is the basis of its 
metaphorical use. This ground idea is expressed in Eng- 
lish, in the various connections where the word occurs, by 
the terms (synonymous in this ground element), to immerse, 
immerge, submerge, to dip, to plunge, to imbathe, to whelm." 

And on another page we have the meaning more briefly 
and formally stated. "Baptizein: To immerse, immerge, 
submerge, to dip, to plunge, to imbathe, to whelm." 

A first thought which occurs, on reading such expo- 
sition, is this: The translation of ^ojrreCw, after all, does not 
appear to be so very easy. It has been said that the sug- 
gestion that there was any difficulty in the translation of 
this word in the English Bible was nothing more than a 



72 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

"pretence." "The meaning of the word was clear, def- 
inite, always the same, and one of the easiest words to 
translate." Now for the proof. Dr. Conant has spent 
years in the study of this word. What translation does 
he give us of it? Why, on Baptist principles, just none 
at all. Our Baptist friends are bound, by all their un- 
measured reproof of us, and by all their equally unmeasured 
claims of most certain knowledge for themselves, to give 
us an English word which shall sharply, squarely, and 
" on all fours" represent this Greek term. Now, what 
Baptist writer furnishes us with such a word ? Does Dr. 
Conant ? Does he profess to do it? Is it possible for him, 
on his own showing, to do it ? These questions must be 
answered in the negative. 

We are told that this word " expresses putting into or 
putting under, immersing or submerging." Does Dr. 
Conant mean by this language that the word means either 
to put into or to put under? but he cannot tell which. Or, 
that sometimes it means the one and sometimes the other; 
not being fixed in its meaning? Or, that it means both; 
there being no difference between " into" and " under" ? 
Or, that it means, exactly, neither; but some third thing? 
Surely we are left quite in the dark as to any definite idea 
of the action expressed by this word. " To put," gives 
no definite information, for it has sixty-seven variations 
of usage according to Webster, and sixty-seven more, 
perhaps, might be added. No valuable aid is found in 
" put into," " put under " for these terms are very far from 
agreeing in one. It is just because they differ that they 
are used. If the " one, clear, definite" idea is not found 
in this part of the definition, is it found in those seven 
defining terms which are added? 

If so, is it equally in each ? This cannot be. If one 
word can be found in English the absolute equivalent of 
fiaTTTtZu), there can hardly be found seven ! If there is one 
such word in this collection, which is it? Is it the first, 
" immerse" ? If so, then why the other six? If the second, 
"immerge" differs from "immerse," and this is the repre- 



SECOND DEFINITION. 73 

sentative word; then, so far, "immerse" fails, and must be 
rejected. The third (" submerge") cannot bear scrutiny if 
the first is the standard. The same is true of the fourth, 
" to dip;" and the fifth, " to plunge ;" and the sixth, " to 
imbathe;" and the seventh, "to whehn;" each of which, 
has its own peculiarities of character distinguishing it 
from " immerse," and, therefore, rendering it incapable 
of representing the Greek word, if such representation is 
made by immerse. The Baptist world has demanded the 
philological "pound of flesh," and has pledged itself, with- 
out fail, to dissect it from the English language. We have 
nothing to say against the rightfulness of the demand; but, 
remember, when weighed over against fta-rtZv, it must be 
nothing more, nothing less. 

But Dr. Conant admits that each of these terms differs 
from its fellows. Why, then, use them ? Why, because 
they agree in some "common ground idea." What is the 
nature of that "ground idea"? Is it an act or a condi- 
tion ? Rot an act, because, manifestly, immerse and sub- 
merge, plunge and whelm, have no sucb bond of union. 
And the character of the act becomes a matter of supreme 
indifference. 

Is the "ground idea" found in condition — "entirely 
covered" ? Then, 1. Dr. Conant repudiates Baptist argu- 
mentation of two centuries, which has labored to prove 
that the idea involved was an act, absolute^ modal, to 
change which was to subvert the truth. 2. What is the 
English word which represents this " ground idea" with- 
out expressing any modal action? 

We have a description of the idea of iSa-z^aj, as Dr. 
Conant understands it, in which description all special 
form and force of act is rejected, and power to effect con- 
dition, only is demanded; which idea is not translated into 
any one word, but is distributed among seven, not one of 
which exhibits, simply and only, this idea. 

But while Dr. Conant is compelled to abandon, on ex- 
amination of his exposition, all idea of a form of act enter- 
ing into and controlling the idea of fia-r^aj, still he clings 



74 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

to the idea, so long cherished, of an act, a movement, a 
force, as belonging to and controlling the usage of this 
word. Thus he says : " This act is always expressed in 
the literal application of the word, and is the basis of its 
metaphorical use." * 

It is an error, and a very serious one, to say that " act is 
always expressed" by this word, in contradistinction from 
condition. It cannot be said, properly, ever thus to express 
an act. This is manifest from the seven words already 
quoted, which express diversity and contrariety of action, 
but which are given as expositors of the same word. Of 
course they cannot be exponential of that in which they 
differ. Therefore, they cannot expound the action in pan- 
t[£&. Dip and plunge do, strictly, express acts, and their 
usage turns, wholly, on the character of those acts; but 
this is in nowise true of the word under consideration. 
The acts by which baptism may be effected are almost 
endless, both as to form and force. The same reason 
which gives the seven words, referred to, as the meaning 
sought for, would justify the addition of .seven more- -to 
duck, to souse, to steep, to sink, to swamp, to ingulf, to 
swallow up ; or seven times seven, which could be readily 
furnished, each putting its object "into or under" the 
water. Dr. Conant gives, in his translations, two score 
acts by which baptism was effected. 1, To assault; 2, to 
let fall; 3, to flow; 4, to weigh clown; 5, to walk; 6, to 
pierce ; 7, to hurl down ; 8, to march ; 9, to rush clown ; 
10, to surround; 11, to press clown ; 12, to rise above; 13, 
to dip ; 14, to submerge ; 15, to thrust; 16, to blow; 17, to 
rush down; 18, to strike; 19, to proceed; 20, to sink; 
21, to immerge; 22, to imbathe; 23, to plunge; 24, to 
lower down; 25, to immerse; 26, to come on; 27, to over- 
turn ; 28, to boil up; 29, to flood; 30, to whelm ; 31, to let 
down; 32, to enter in; 33, to pour; 34, to souse; 35, to 
bring down; 36, to depress; 37, to steep; 38, to drench; 
39, to play the dipping match ; 40, to duck. Is each act, 
severally expressed by these forty words, a facsimile of 
pa-T&o> f According to the definition, " put into, under, its 



SECOND DEFINITION. 75 

object, entirely," it does so; but if so, then it must, among 
words of action, stand forth a Briarean monster, or a Pro- 
tean prodigy. Certainly no act of forty fold form " is 
always expressed in the literal application of the word." 

Other objections lie against the words selected (without 
good reason from a host of others), as the representative 
words. "We are told that 

" Ba-ziXu) means — To immerse, immerge, submerge, to 
dip, to plunge, to imbathe, to whelm." 

"We object to the employment of words compounded 
with prepositions, to represent words which have no such 
composition. 

As the Greeks use both efi-Pairr%a> } and xaza-iSa-z^w, the 
translation of which would, property, be with a compound 
word (but with which we have nothing to do), why intro- 
duce the distinctive peculiarity of these words into the 
translation of famiM The composite character of these 
defining words must be rejected as inconsiderately, I would 
by no means say surreptitiously, introduced. 

We would, then, have : merse, merge, dip, plunge, 
bathe, whelm. 

Of these terms, "merge" must be set aside as having an 
almost exclusive, and somewhat peculiar, metaphorical use 
in our language. 

"Dip" must be rejected on its merits. The statement 
of Carson, that •" dip is the meaning, and the only meaning, 
of this word through all Greek literature," is met by the 
equally broad and contradictory statement, that it never, 
through all Greek literature, has the meaning to dip. 

The notion that (ia-T^io means to dip was never derived 
from a study of the usage of this word, but was borrowed 
from 0airra», with which it was long absolutely identified, 
and with which it is still identified by Baptist writers, so 
far as the primary meaning is concerned. For such iden- 
tification there never was the semblance of a reason. In 
usage, these words are as nearly oppositcs of each other as 
they well could be. I do not now enter upon any justifi- 
cation of this position. My business, now, is to hear what 



76 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

Baptist writers have to say, and to suggest difficulties 
which appear on the surface of things. Hereafter I will 
endeavor to make good the position that dip, the primary 
meaning of fid-no, no more belongs to pa-r^w than does dye, 
its secondary meaning. 

"We strike out dip, then, from Dr. Conant's list of repre- 
sentative words, as having no right to be there. 

" Plunge," also, must be rejected on its merits. Its lack 
of merit, however, is quite different, in important respects, 
from dip. This latter word has a defect of nature which 
renders it essentially unfit to fulfil the demands of pannZat. 
This is not the case with the former word. It is entirely 
competent to fulfil the demands of the Greek word ; but 
it is not the more, on that account, an exposition, in its 
individuality, of the value of /3a-n'!>. It might as well 
be said that to hinder means, to tie a hundred weight to a 
man's foot. Most assuredly this would prove a hindrance; 
but though the demand of " hinder" may be thus met, 
shall we say that to hinder means, " to tie a hundred weight 
to a man's foot" ? To do so would be just as rational as 
to say that /3a-r& means to plunge, because it can, under 
certain circumstances, meet its demands. To plunge ex- 
presses a distinctive act, with strongly marked characteris- 
tics, which has no expression whatever in the Greek word. 
And since to attribute to it such a meaning tends to foster 
the erroneous idea that it belongs to that class of verbs, 
we exclude plunge from the seven defining words. 

" To bathe" has no claim whatever to be used to express 
the meaning of the Greek word, either as to act or con- 
dition. And as it is employed but once by Dr. Conant, if 
I remember rightly, and in its compound form — zm-bathe — 
he will not feel that its erasure brings much loss with it. 

" To whelm" does not express any specific fprm of act 
any more than does to cover, and, in so far, is calculated to 
act as a representative word. But it does express the idea 
of the whelming element coming over its object, and in 
this fails to find any correspondence in the Greek word. 
That word cordially accepts such mode of fulfilling its 



METAPnORICAL USE. 77 

behests, but neither enjoins nor expresses it. Its breadth 
is greater. It has no regard to form of action. It contem- 
plates, exclusively, condition — intusposition — and what- 
ever act will accomplish this it accepts as a true and loyal 
servitor, one as truly as the other, whatever may be their 
diversities. It refuses, with absolute denial, to be bound 
to any, whether labelled with " into," or " under," or 
" over." 

Whelm 7 in certain respects, serves very admirably as an 
interpretative word. I would, therefore, allow the first, 
(stripped of its preposition,) and the last of "the seven" 
to stand as valuable helps, with proper explanation, to 
expound the Greek word. 

METAPHORICAL USE. 

The metaphorical or secondary use of fiaxrKia claims our 
special attention. It is all-essential to a proper under- 
standing of the word. Some call this use figurative. I 
do not like the term. It is suggestive to most persons of 
something unreal, shadowy, fanciful. This is far from 
being the case in the present instance. Nor is it so do- 
pendent on the literal physical use as some would have us 
believe. This usage is as frequent, well-nigh if not quite, 
in classic writings as is the primary. And while freely 
confessing that the secondary use does proceed from and 
draw its meaning from the primary use, we do emphati- 
cally deny that that meaning is merely an allusive one; we 
claim that it has, and does directly suggest a meaning of 
its own, which excludes the idea of physical investiture. 
Dr. Conant traces this usage to an act. Thus, again, 
showing the control held by the idea that the word ex- 
pressed an act, as does dip or plunge, which idea is a con- 
stant source of misconception and improper use of lan- 
guage. 

He says: "This act is always expressed in the literal 
application of the word, and is the basis of its metaphor- 
ical uses." (p. 59.) 



78 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

■ 

" Iii the metaphorical application of the word, both 
cases" (plunging and overflowing) " are recognized as the 
ground of this usage." (p. 60.) 

" The ground idea is preserved in the several metaphori- 
cal uses of the word." " The idea of a total submergence 
lies at the basis of the£e metaphorical uses." (p. 61.) 

" In the metaphorical sense it is often used absolutely, 
meaning to whelm in (or with) ruin, troubles, &c." (p. 61.) 

"We speak of a man as immersed in calamities, &c, 
always with the idea of totality, of being wholly under the 
dominion of these states- or influence; it suggests the clear 
image of the act on which they all are founded." (p. 107.) 

The metaphorical use of this word is dependent in no- 
wise on any form of act. It is no more dependent on dip- 
ping, plunging, sinking, as forms of acts, than it is de- 
pendent on walking, throwing, falling. 

~Nor does this usage turn on the picturing of an object 
as in a state of physical immersion, submersion, or en- 
velopment. Cases of such picturing may, doubtless, be 
found; but they are not properly arranged under this head 
of metaphorical use ; they belong to what is more properly 
designated as figure-picturing. The secondary or meta- 
phorical use of words does not draw pictures of primary 
use, but takes some leading thought pertaining to it, and 
makes an application of it as the case plainly indicates. 
Such, at least, we claim for fact in this case. In every case 
of physical envelopment there is an opportunity for the 
investing element to exercise its influence over the object 
in the highest degree; what the nature of that influence 
will be depends upon the element and the object. 

There is nothing more obviously natural than that the 
word which is expressive of such envelopment should be 
taken, not merely to draw physical pictures, but to repre- 
sent, directly, that constantly needed thought of controlling 
influence. This, we say, has been done in the case of this 
word, and that such is its true metaphorical or secondary 
use. Hence a baptism can be effected by anything, of 
whatever dimensions, or of whatever nature, physical or 



METAPHORICAL USE. 79 

» 

unphysical, which is capable of exercising a controlling 
influence over its object, thus bringing it into a new con- 
dition. 

It was on this ground that the Greeks represented a 
baptism to be effected by a cup of wine, by perplexing 
questions, and by a few drops of an opiate. "Whether 
these, or such like things, baptize by dipping, or plunging, 
or sinking, or overflowing, may be safely left to the deter- 
mination of common sense. It will tax the powers of a 
very lively imagination to show, how an embarrassing 
question lets loose a water-flood into which the bewildered 
respondent is plunged, or by which he is overflowed. 

But give what explanation you will, the stubborn fact, 
the truly important thing, remains; that the Greeks daily 
effected baptisms by a draught of wine, by a bewildering 
question, and by droppings from an opiate. Accumulate 
around these baptisms metaphor, figure, picture, and what 
not, I make my argument with finger pointed to the cup, 
the question, and the opiate drop, and say, the old Greeks 
baptized, through a thousand years, by such things as these! 

Dr. Conant pronounces a just critical judgment when he 
says of this class of baptisms, they exhibit those receiving 
them as " wholly under the dominion of these states or 
influences;" but when he proceeds to add, "they sug- 
gest the clear image of the act on which they all are 
founded," we take exception : 1. To the introduction of 
"the image of the act." No such suggestion can be made, 
for the very good reason that there is no such "the act" to 
be " imaged." The acts by which these, and all other bap- 
tisms, are effected are endlessly diverse, and, therefore, 
cannot have " the image" reflected in any one word. The 
image of the act of dipping is one thing; the image of the 
act of plunging is another thing; the image of the act of 
sinking is yet another; and the image of the act of flow- 
ing is still another. Each of these words has a metaphor- 
ical or secondary use peculiar to itself and incapable of 
interchange ; such use may, in each several case, suggest 
"the image of the act" appropriate to itself, but no word 



80 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

can suggest at the same time, or equally, or at all, the 
several distinctive acts of dipping, plunging, sinking, flow- 
ing. But while these modes have "the image of an act" 
to suggest, fiaTZTga) has none; for the reason that neither in 
primary nor in secondary use has it anything whatever, as 
to its meaning, to do with the form of an act. This word 
demands for its ohject condition, and condition solely; it 
says nothing, and it cares nothing for dipping, plunging, 
sinking, flowing, pouring, provided only that it is com- 
petent to fulfil the demanded condition. This it insists 
upon. 

If Dr. Conant will erase " the image of the act" (aban- 
doning the idea that paxr^ expresses the form of an act, 
and accepting the idea of condition), and will say that the 
metaphorical or secondary use indicates and expresses that 
the baptized person is "wholly under the dominion of the 
state or influence" appropriate to the case; which meaning 
(not image) is clearly traceable to the primary use, wherein 
an object is encompassed by a physical element, and thus 
wholly subject to its influence, then, my objection is at an 
end, and Baptist argumentation, as to the character of this 
w T ord, is abandoned by Dr. Conant. 

It remains to be seen whether such abandonment of the 
character so long attributed to this word, will necessitate 
the abandonment of their entire system or not. They 
must, at least, look over the field from a new stand-point, 
to see whether their conclusions can be adjusted to the 
new aspect of things. 

I only observe, now, that this meaning does, on the face 
of it, extinguish all idea of fta-T^u) having anything to do 
with clipping; dipping never brought any object "wholly 
under the dominion" of anything. And by the same in- 
exorable necessity must be abandoned the long-affirmed 
unity between this word and /Sarrrw. How much of logically 
affiliating error these changes will sweep away with them 
farther inquiry will show. 

We conclude : 1. This examination of the leading points 
in Dr. Conant's treatise does not encourage us to adopt the 



IMMERSE AS A LATIN DERIVATIVE. 81 

Baptist postulates : (1.) One clear, precise, definite mean- 
ing. (2.) Identity between pd-ru> and fta-z^co. (3.) jSa-z^io 
expresses a definite, modal act. (4.) Metaphorical use is 
a mere picture of the primary use. 

2. It shows that Dr. Conant is not in accord with previ- 
ous Baptist writers in his exposition of the word, particu- 
larly with Dr. Carson, who insists, in the most absolute 
manner, on modal action. Thus the most powerful con- 
troversialist furnished from the Baptist ranks, and the 
latest and ablest philological expositor of their views, 
cannot accrce as to the essential value of that word " which 
has but one meaning," and to understand w T hich " needs 
not light, but honesty." 

3. The exposition, translation, and current phraseology 
lack self-harmony. 

IMMERSE AS A LATIN DERIVATIVE. 

The record taken from Baptist writers, as now presented, 
shows a growing disposition to present, and to rely upon 
immerse as a shield to protect their system against contro- 
versial blows, which otherwise could not be endured. 

This course has been adopted, not under a frank con- 
fession of essential error in past views ; but for the sake 
of covering the temporary retreat of their forces, that they 
may be preserved for use under happier auspices. Dip 
and plunge are still claimed as the meanings of a word 
"which never has but one meaning;" while immerse is 
introduced as another meaning, to shield them under con- 
fessed incompetency to meet the demands of actual usage. 

Two questions here arise: 1. "Why is it that, thus, with 
patent inconsistency, dip and plunge are held on to so 
tenaciously? 2. And how is it that immerse becomes so 
valuable a coveriifg force in these times of disaster? 

In answer to the first inquiry it may be said: The deeply 
fixed notion that /?«—£> means to dip, sprang out of the 
error which regarded this word aud fid-rio as substantially 
the same word, " the one in a long coat and the other in 

6 



82 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

a short one;" or, as a translator of the Baptist Bible Union 
says, " the one in a modern dress, the other in more ancient 
attire." This conception is an entire mistake, as will, 
hereafter, be shown; bnt it has served to fasten what is 
the undoubted meaning of ^d-rm upon its associate word, 
notwithstanding its protest from every case of usage. Un- 
prepared to give up this imaginary relationship between 
these words, they have held on to the meaning, " dip," in 
the face of facts, now at last admitted, w r hich render such 
meaning impossible. 

But why perpetuate this inconsistency which affirms 
that a word has but one meaning, and yet confesses, in an 
exigency, that it has another ? The only appropriate and 
adequate answer seems to be found in the vital connection 
of the act of dipping with the Baptist system. The rite 
of baptism is performed, under this system, only by dip- 
ping, and we are told that it cannot be performed in any 
other way, because the word means specifically " to dip, 
expressing mode, and nothing but mode;" and this w*ord 
expresses a divine command, which can only be obeyed 
by the performance of this specific act. Now t , to admit 
that paxriZu) never means to dip (for to that must come the 
admission, that sometimes it does not), is to admit that God 
has not commanded a dipping; and to admit this, is to 
dissipate that excellent glory which has been so passion- 
ately claimed for ritual dipping. All this, human nature 
will be slow to do. 

But how is it that immerse becomes " a friend indeed," 
under these circumstances ? The explanation is found in 
a little duplicity (pardon the word to point the argument, 
I use it Latinice) of use. This facile, duplex use is due to 
its Latin origin and composition, together with an essen- 
tially less pointed character than many other words. 

Without entering into details, it seems desirable, now, 
to refer to the L&tin original of our English word immerse, 
and point out its meaning in that language. 



MEROO — IM-MERGO. 



MERGO— IM-MERGKX 



Mergo (from which i?n-mergo is formed by composition 
with the preposition in, and from which m-merse is de- 
rived), does not mean to dip or to plunge; nor docs it 
express any definite act ; nor yet act or movement unde- 
fined in character; but it expresses condition characterized 
by inness of position, commonly within a fluid element, 
which condition may be effected by any act competent 
thereunto. Mergo expresses none. 

That this word does not signify to dip, to plunge, is 
evident from the prepositions with which it enters into 
composition. 

Sub-mergo, De-mergo, E-mergo, exhibit a cast of com- 
position which could not be intelligently associated with 
a word having the character of action which belongs to 
plunge. But may not in be associated with such form of 
act? Undoubtedly it may; but it does not follow that 
every word which is compounded with this preposition 
does originally or compositely express movement. As in 
does, of itself, express simply inness of position ; so it does, 
also, in composition. And the contrary must not be as- 
sumed in any case. We deny that, as appearing in im- 
mergo, it expresses of itself movement, or that it indicates 
that mergo has such character. On the contrary, we say 
that it expresses merely position, and serves to express 
with emphasis the idea of inness, which is the leading 
characteristic of the word with which it is associated. 

Proof of this position is found in the following facts: 
1. Ovid speaks of a house as mersed, and boats sailing 
over it. This house was not plunged into the water, but 
was mersed by the water rising up above it. 2. Pliny 
speaks of one river being mersed into another. This was 
not by the act of plunging into, but by the act of flowing. 
Will it be said that mergo means to flow ? The act of 
flowing, by which the mersion was effected, is wholly dis- 
tinct from mergo, although no distinct word is employed 



84 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

to express that action. The mersion follows on the flow- 
y ing. 3. While it is more usual to leave unexpressed the 
word by which the act effecting the mersion would be 
designated, still there are instances in which the phraseol- 
ogy, in this respect, is made complete. 

" Spargite me in fluctus, vastoque immergite ponto." 
" Cast me into the waves and immerse me in the deep sea" 
(M. iii, 605.) 

Here the act by which the mersion is effected is stated 
to be " casting;" the mersion follows as a consequence. 
Had "immergite" been used alone, it would not have 
meant to cast, to plunge ; but the condition would be ex- 
pressed, which would, of necessity, carry with it some ade- 
quate form of act left unexpressed. 

" Ab Jove mersa suo Stygias penetrant in undas." 
" Mersed by her Jove she shall go to the Stygian waters." 
(Ovid iii, 4, 20.) 

This mersion extends to the Styx; but mergo does not 
denote a plunging which extends from the bright scenes 
of earth to the gloomy banks of that river. This passage 
is provided for by " penetrant," and to mergo is reserved 
the office of expressing the condition. 

This interpretation is confirmed by the phraseology of 
Seneca, where the word expressing the movement is 
omitted — " Mergere aliquem ad Styga." 

This omission does not confer on mergo the power to 
express the idea of passing, penetrating, plunging; but 
gives the mersion position and character, leaving the word 
of movement to be supplied. 

This is the explanation of all like cases. And in this 
there is nothing peculiar. The usage is illustrated in all 
words of the same class. Take for example the word bury. 
"Bury the dead body." To fulfil this command, a pit 
is dug, the body is lowered down, and it is filled up again. 
Does "bury" mean to dig, to lower down, to fill up? How 
if the body be carried into a sepulchre hewn out of a rock, 
and a stone be rolled against its mouth; does it, then, mean 
to carry into, to roll against ? 



MERGO — BURY. 85 

" An avalanche of ice and snow buried the entire ham- 
let." Does bury mean to fall down? "An avalanche of 
ice and snow fell down and buried the entire hamlet." Is 
not this only a more full statement of the other, placing 
the movement in its proper relation ? 

" The flock was buried by the falling snow." Does to 
bury mean to sprinkle with snow-flakes? "The entire 
crew was buried in the ocean." Does bury mean to sink? 
To merse may be accomplished by lowering down, falling 
down, carrying in, sinking, sprinkling over, and it ex- 
presses all these forms just as to bury does; no more, no 
less. And so, when bury is used without there being ex- 
pressed, by an additional word, the act whereby the burial 
is accomplished, such word must be supplied, the nature 
of it varying greatly according to circumstances ; but in 
no possible case can " bury" be converted into a word ex- 
pressive of act or movement. All which is true of mergo. 
Bury is, also, used with into, without, however, in anywise 
changing its character. " He buried the knife into his 
body." " The cannon-ball was buried into the ground." 
Such phraseology does, as Dr. Conant says, express the 
passing from one point to another, but it is a mistake to 
say that such expression is due to "bury," or that it has 
anything, directly, to do with it. He buries the knife, 
thrusting it into his body. Does bury mean to thrust ? 
The cannon-ball was buried into the ground by its pro- 
jective impetus. Does bury mean " to project" ? 

In, compounded with bury, in-bury, in-tomb, has as little 
power to change the character of the word. It only em- 
phasizes the inness of condition. The same is true of in 
joined with mergo; and when our Baptist friends take 
occasion, from the use, at times, of the Latin preposition 
to denote motion, to engraft this idea on im-mergo, im- 
merse, they do what is incapable of justification. It is, 
however, on this ground (and failure to supply the exec- 
utive verb) that the meaning, dip, plunge, has been erro- 
neously attributed to this word, with some appearance of 
truth; while, its true nature and proper usage allowed it 



86 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

to be used in eases where dip and plunge were inadmissi- 
ble. Therefore, dip and plunge have been used where 
they could be, and immerse has been used where it must 
be, with the assumption that it was a kindred word with 
them, and expressive of act and movement. This duplicity 
of use (I mean not to reproach, but only to show that Latin 
terms Anglicised may change their value) must be abated, 
even though it should cost our Baptist friends the very 
serious and painful loss of dipping as an act of divine com- 
mand. 

FAILUKK 

Having now listened with patience, and not without much 
interest, to all which Baptist writers have to say as to the 
meaning of (3a-T&u>, with the conviction, that if they could 
make good a moiety of their unqualified assertions farther 
investigation would be precluded, I must confess myself 
not a little suprised at the result. 

"Where is that one, clear, precise, and definite meaning? 
Certainly it is not in Baptist writings. "Where is the evi- 
dence tha/t paitra) and /?a~r£w have, precisely, the same 
meaning, form, force, and effect? Not, assuredly, in Bap- 
tist writings. Where is the evidence that P*ict(Co> expresses 
an act, a definite act, mode, and nothing but mode, to dip? 
Not a particle is to be found in Baptist writings. Where 
is the evidence that pa-ri^io expresses in secondary use the 
act (dipping), which is attributed to it in primary use? 
Baptist writers have not furnished it. 

Where is that English word, the daguerreotype of the 
Greek word, which was to flash forth the one, clear, and 
definite meaning, so that " a wayfaring man though a fool 
need not err therein"? There is not a Baptist writer, 
during three hundred years, who has offered such a word 
with the attempt to carry it through Greek usage. 

And where is that translation which was to rebuke the 
disloyalty of the Christian world, and indicate the un- 
swerving fealty of the few? "It is found in im-mcrse." 
And if the Holy Spirit employs a word (as we are told 



ADMINISTRATION OF THE RITE. 87 

that he docs) which " means im-merge, sub-merge, dip, 
plunge, im-bathe, whelm," by what authority are these six 
defining terms rejected and the seventh taken? Or if, as 
we are also told, and as Greek usage proves, forty other 
acts may execute the will of this Greek word, why are the 
thirty-nine rejected and the fortieth taken to represent, 
just and no more, the mind of the Spirit? If " im-merse" 
is used in the sense to dip, to plunge, it does most essen- 
tially fail to reflect the Greek word; if it is not used in that 
sense, then away with the definition — dip, plunge; or away 
with the " one meaning through all Greek literature." 

An inspection of Baptist writings does not confirm the 
notion, that the work of defining this word has been done 
by them so thoroughly and so exhaustively of truth, that 
all farther inquiry is a work of supererogation. 



ADMINISTRATION OF THE RITE. 

Before instituting any inquiry of our own as to the 
meaning of this word, let us hear, still farther, what is to 
be said as to the practical administration of the rite, and 
the reduction of the theoretical meaning of the word to 
concrete practice. 

"We may, reasonably, expect to find, here, harmony with 
announced principles, if not absolute truth. 

The Confession of Faith of the Baptist Churches (A.D. 
1644), 40th Article : " The way and manner of dispensing 
this ordinance the Scriptures hold out to be dipping or 
plunging the whole body under water." 

Booth (p. 146) : " The ordinance should be administered 
by immersing the subject in water." 

Ripley (p. 120) : " The candidates being placed under 
water." 

Wat/land (p. 87) : " We believe that the ordinance of 
baptism is to be administered by the immersion of the 
body in water." 

Curtis (p. 68): "Baptism as a symbol necessarily em- 
braces an immersion or burial of the body in water." 



88 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

Jewett (p. 13) : " The immersion of the subject in water 
is essential to the ordinance." (p. 46): " In baptism we 
are commanded to perform the act represented by the 
word baptize." 

Stovel (p. 417): "What is to be baptized? The answer 
is, persons." (p. 495) : " The act, therefore, is not sprink- 
ling or pouring ; but the motion takes place in the man, 
and ceases when the man is baptized in the water." 

THE ACT— THE OBJECT— THE END. 

In these statements respecting the administration of the 
rite three things are presented as of cardinal importance : 
1. The act required to be performed. 2. The object to 
which that act is addressed. 3. The end toward which 
the act carries its object. Let us consider what is said 
of these severally. 

1. The act. — Are we to understand that a definite act is 
taught or not ? Surety this matter ought not to be left in 
the dark. Prof. Jewett seems to speak plainly : " We are 
commanded to perform the act represented by the word 
baptize." Very well; if we are " commanded" by God " to 
perform an act," it is very important that we should know 
what that act is. Will the Professor give us the informa- 
tion? Certainly; it is the act of "the immersion of the 
subject in water." Very good. And now may we ask 
what is the act in " the immersion of the subject in 
water" ? Undoubtedly, it is " the act which we are com- 
manded to perform by the word baptize." Indeed ! After 
such a lucid circular exposition, who can complain that 
"the act commanded" is not perfectly "clear, precise, and 
definite" ? 

When we turn to Dr. Wayland, we are again confronted 
with an " immersion of the body in water." And so with 
Curtis, with the addition, " or burial." Booth reiterates, — 
"immersing the subject in water" is the way "the ordin- 
ance should be administered." But, here, we have at least 
a negative guide to the act; it cannot be plunge, for this 



THE ACT — THE OBJECT — THE END. 89 

• 

writer says that word "makes our sentiment and practice 
ridiculous." What act, then, do Wayland, and Curtis, and 
Jewett propose when they say : " We are commanded to 
perform the act," hut it is not "plunge"? Stovel, too, 
helps us, negatively, when he says: "The act is not 
sprinkling" (although there was a very extensive baptism 
by sprinkling when Noah sought refuge from it in the 
Ark); "nor pouring" (although his friend Fuller thinks 
that the act of pouring is quite competent to effect a bap- 
tism); but the act consists in "moving a man until he is 
baptized in water." Such, then, positively, is "the act 
commanded;" — to baptize a man is to "move a man until 
he is baptized"! An act of singular lucidity — "clear, 
precise, and definite." 

Prof. Ripley eschews the use of immerse, with its double- 
ness, as, also, " the moving a man until he is baptized," 
and adopts phraseology which neither expresses a definite' 
act nor movement of the object to be baptized. 

The Confession of Faith, venerable with the years of a 
third century, unlike its more modern representatives, 
gives forth no uncertain sound: "The way or manner of 
dispensing this ordinance the Scriptures hold out to be 
dipping or plunging." 

This doctrine, or its plain, outspoken English utterance, 
is becoming quite old-fashioned. JSTew terms in theological 
issues seldom fail to foreshadow a departure from the old 
"way and manner." It will, most probably, be found, in 
the present case, that a Latin derivative has been resorted 
to for the purpose of covering over the abandonment of 
those ruder spoken terms, dip and plunge, as the exponents 
of " the act commanded." 

If there is a consciousness of error in giving such mean- 
ing to the word, let the acknowledgment be made as 
frankly as by 3Iorell : " We give up, thus far, the cause 
of immersion." If, while abandoning these acts, it still 
be insisted upon that some act is commanded; and that 
"the act commanded" must be performed; then, in turn, 
we insist on being told what " the act commanded" is. Do 



90 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

not give us half a dozen different words varying in their 
forms of action, and say we may take our choice; we wish 
no greater liberty than "the command" gives; we are will- 
ing, anxious, to be bound by it. Tell us, then, " the act." 
There is but one word used in the text. You cannot 
" dip" in half a dozen different ways. If baptize means 
" to dip," you cannot obey the command by baptizing in 
a half dozen different ways; no, not by plunging, for Booth 
says these are essentially different acts ; nor by pouring, al- 
though Fuller says you can; nor by overflowing, although 
Cox says you can. If the command is " to dip," and "the 
command is to be obeyed," then, thus far must we go, and 
no farther. If baptize does not, definitely, mean any one 
of these acts, but still does definitely mean action, move- 
ment, embracing them all, then let us be furnished with 
an English word of equal breadth (as " the translation is 
the easiest possible"), and let us hear no more of " the act 
commanded." But if the word does not belong either to 
the class of words expressive of definite forms of action ; 
nor of action indefinite; but to that class which is expres- 
sive of state, condition, result, employing " forty" or four 
hundred acts for the accomplishment; then, do not give us 
seven defining words, neither of which, confessedly, meas- 
ures the original, making up the deficiency by saying that 
they agree in "a ground idea." Give us a word which 
expresses, like the original, that "ground idea," and we 
will dispense with " the seven" which do not. 

If I am commanded " to bridge a river," I protest against 
the interpretation of this command into an injunction to 
build — 1, sl pier bridge; or, 2, an arch bridge; or, 3, a tubu- 
lar bridge; or, 4, a suspension bridge; or, 5, a draw bridge; 
or, 6, a s tone bridge; or, 7, a pontoon bridge. I protest 
against all of these " seven" being taken as the represen- 
tative of the original command, on the plea, of agreement 
in a common " ground idea." And I protest against the 
use of any of these seven to translate " faithfully" into a 
foreign tongue the original command. It is my liberty to 
use "pier," "arch," "tube," "wire," "draw," "stone," 



THE ACT — THE OBJECT — THE END. 91 

"pontoon," any one or any combination; and no one has 
a right to infringe that liberty by putting into the com- 
mand any one which he may fancy to select, and command 
me to build tJiat. 

If it should be concluded to abandon the idea that act, 
definite or indefinite, is commanded; and it be acknowl- 
edged that result, state, condition, constitutes the matter 
of the command; then we ask for a word which will def- 
initely express that idea, and not something else. This 
will be easy for those to do who say, " difficulty of trans- 
lation is all a pretence." 

When such word is secured, we farther demand that it 
shall reign with imperial autocracy through all its usage, 
and that we shall no longer have a rebellious dip or plunge 
introduced to control translation or interpretation. 

" The act represented by the word baptize," which "we 
are commanded to perform," seems to be left very much 
in the dark by Prof. Jewett and friends. 

2. The object. — The object on which this act expends 
itself, next claims attention. Stovel says, "the man;" 
Jewett and Booth say, "the subject;" Way land and Curtis 
say, "the body;" Ripley says, " the candidate;" and the 
Confession of Faith says, " the whole body." 

Here there is neither ambiguity of phraseology nor con- 
flict of sentiment. If Baptist writers exhibited as much 
clearness and unity in speaking of the act of baptism a3 
of the object of baptism, they would be above reproach. 

"Man," "subject," "body," "candidate," " whole body," 
presents diversity of phraseology, but unity of material 
object. This object is, also, presented in the same aspect; 
the act expends itself not on any of its parts, but includes 
the "whole." 

Dip, plunge, imbathe, whelm, sink, overflow, exhibit no 
such unity of act under diversity of terms. 

The universal faith of the Baptist Church is, that bap- 
tize commands " the whole body to be dipped or plunged in 
water." 

Does classic Greek require this? Timon baptized a man 



92 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

in water. Did he " dip or plunge his whole body" ? No, he 
put more or less of his head under water, and so drowned 
him. £Tow, what shall be said of the position — "baptize 
requires the whole body to be dipped or plunged"? Is it 
not most evidently erroneous ? But why does Lucian call 
pushing the head under water baptism of the man ? Be- 
cause the rest of his body was, already, under water, 
and what remained out was pushed under-? £so. (1.) This 
could never be called a baptism, if baptize requires the 
whole body to be dipped or plunged. (2.) If the head and 
body of this man had been under water, except his foot or 
hand, or leg or arm, and Timon had pushed that into the 
water, the Greeks would have smiled at the suggestion 
that such an act should be called a baptism of the man. 
Did the Greeks adopt the principle, that any part of an 
object being baptized, the whole might be said to be bap- 
tized? They did not; but they did adopt the principle 
(as this and other cases show), that where the head, the 
nobler part, was baptized, the man was, justly, said to be 
baptized; especially when that part influenced the whole 
man. 

In Prussia, certain Baptists dip the head, only, into a 
vessel of water. "Regular" Baptists will find it hard to 
justify the withholding fellowship from these imitators of 
the old Greek, on the ground that baptize necessarily dips 
the whole body. Baptist sentiment and Grecian practice 
are at contraries. 

But how is it as to the accord between Baptist sentiment 
and Baptist practice ? Are they at one ? 

Hear Prof. Ripley (p. 76) : "Prof. Stuart blends together 
two things that are perfectly distinct, viz., the going down 
into the water. and the immersion into it. That the going 
down into the water was the immersion, no one believes; 
the immersion after the descent into the water is expressed 
by another word, he baptized him." 

Is it not marvellous that thoughtful men can write after 
this fashion, having laid down the principle — "baptize 
dips or plunges the whole body ?" Is the baptism which 



THE ACT — THE OBJECT — THE END. 93 

Prof. Ripley describes modelled after that which Baptist 
sentiment demands, or after that which Lucian describes ? 
He says: "No one believes" that "the going down into 
the water" is the baptism; "these two things are perfectly 
distinct;" the baptism takes place "after the descent into 
the water;" "it is expressed by another word." Very 
well; but if baptism is dipping the head into water after 
"the candidate" has done "a very different thing," to wit, 
" walked into the water," which " no one believes" to be 
baptism, why announce, as a sentiment of faith demanded 
by " fealty to God," that " the way and manner of dis- 
pensing this ordinance the Scriptures hold out to be dip- 
ping or plunging the whole body under water"? And yet 
the Professor describes the universal practice, which is in 
flat contradiction to universal sentiment. 

Timon's baptism was by pushing the head under water 
after the unhappy man had gone down into the water, or 
had fallen into the water, or had been swept away by a 
flood, or in some other " perfectly distinct" w^ay had got 
into the water, and was covered up with the exception of 
his head. And after the same model is Prof. Ripley's 
baptism. Baptists must change their principle or their 
practice. If their principle is right, there is no obedience 
to " the act commanded," and no baptism in their practice; 
and if their practice is right, there is no truth in their in- 
terpretation of the command, or in their principle which 
they deduce from it. 

If to this it be, apologetically, answered: "All the body 
gets under water somehow, although not by the act of bap- 
tism, nor in obedience, therefore, to the mode in the com- 
mand; and what is the difference if we substitute the act 
of walking for the act of dipping; the act of the candidate . 
for the act of the administrator; the head for the whole 
body" ? 

Well, I do not know that it makes much " difference" to 
others, if Baptists are satisfied. It is their business to have 
some harmony between sentiment and practice, or not to* 
throw very big " rocks" at other people's glass houses. 



94 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

"But it would be exceedingly difficult 'to dip the whole 
body into water.'" That may all be very true; but it 
sounds passing strange from Baptist lips. "Difficulty" 
stand in the way of a faithful administration of baptism ! 
Why, I thought that that line of argument had been set- 
tled against the Christian world long, long ago, by two 
words — " divine command." Are Baptists ready to eat up 
their mass of argumentation (not always flattering to self- 
esteem) on this point? Will they now say (what their 
opponents never said, and, through grace, never will say), 
that difficulty in execution is an apology for disobedience 
to a clear divine command ? Others have said that diffi- 
culties claim consideration in making interpretation of a 
divine command, and for this and other good reasons they 
have judged, that "there is no divine command to dip the 
whole body into water;" and, therefore, do not do so. 
Baptists have judged that God has given such command 
in the most explicit terms of which language is capable; 
and yet have never, in one instance, for three hundred 
years, obeyed, the command. They may be disposed to 
make light of this discrepance between their sentiment 
and practice, but it is vain ; it is ruinous to their system 
as it stands. 

Whatever the difficulty in dipping the whole body, it 
involves no impossibility. When others have suggested 
that it would be difficult to dip or plunge couches; the 
difficulty has been smiled away. " The whole body" is 
not as large as a couch. When it has been said, it would 
be difficult for the twelve to baptize the three thousand; 
the answer has been prompt : " If more were necessary, 
we will find them; where were the seventy"? If more 
are necessary " to dip the whole body," can they not be 
found? When it has been objected that it would be diffi- 
cult for John to live in the water during all his ministry, 
dipping or plunging such multitudes; the answer has been 
prompt: "Then we will put him on the bank, and he 
shall dip them thence." Could not " the whole body" be 
slid off from the bank by a little clever management ? 



THE ACT — THE OBJECT — THE END. 95 

Is it possible that the rich invention which has sur- 
mounted so many obstacles can, at last, be exhausted? 
Can no way be devised by which the divine command can 
be met, and " the whole body dipped or plunged" ? 

May not a stimulus to genius be found in the happy 
bearing which it would have on the baptism-burial of 
Curtis? Would it not be far more like a burial to carry 
the whole body into the water and lay it in " the watery 
tomb," than for a living man to walk into the water 
("which no one believes to be baptism"), and then to dip 
his head and shoulders? Besides, was not the body of the 
Saviour, " the whole body," thus carried and laid in the 
tomb; and are we not "buried with him, and like him, in 
baptism"? There is nothing in burial-baptism which has 
better authority than this. Why not adopt it, and ventilate 
a new argument, with whole obedience to the divine com- 
mand in " dipping the whole body into water?" 

The practicability of the thing has been demonstrated. 
Eunomius and his disciples, we are told, did " dip into 
water the whole body," by the help of ropes and pulleys. 
"Whether this feat was performed under the impulse of a 
conception of duty similar to this modern notion, I cannot 
say; but the thing has been done, and, therefore, can 
be* done. 

ZSTone need hesitate through fear that " ropes and pulleys" 
could not secure an orthodox Greekly baptism. Classic 
Greek gives us examples of just such baptisms; and Dr. 
Carson would, by like means, baptize " the couches" of 
Scripture. Eunomius cannot be made a heretic on the 
ground of his " act of baptism." And why be troubled 
with " unseemliness"? Has not every suggestion of this 
nature been answered, to all Baptist minds, with as much 
triumph as indignation ? Why, then, not harmonize prin- 
ciple and practice? 

"Dip the whole body," by some legitimate process, and ♦ 
do not put the larger part of the body under water by the 
walking of the candidate (which Professor Ripley says, 
" nobody believes to be baptism"); or, while baptizing a 



96 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

part only of the body, extend some grace toward those who 
do so in like manner. 

3. The end. — Stovel says, " the act moves the man, and 
ceases when the man is baptized in the water;" that is, I 
suppose, when he is put under the water. 

The Confession of Faith " plunges the whole body under 
water," and thus and there, ends " the way and manner of 
dispensing this ordinance." 

Dr. Conant says (p. 60) : " The idea of emersion is not 
included in the Greek word. It means simply to put into 
or under water, without determining whether the object 
immersed sinks to the bottom, or floats in the liquid, or is 
immediately taken out. A living being put under water 
without intending to drown him, is of course to be imme- 
diately withdrawn from it; and this is to be understood 
whenever the word is used with reference to such a case." 

This is hardly a fair statement of the case. It is true, 
that there is nothing in the word to prevent its object from 
being "immediately taken out of the water;" but it is 
also true, that the word never contemplates the removal 
of -its object from the condition in which it has placed it. 

There is nothing in the word bury to prevent its object 
from being " immediately taken out." It would, however, 
be a very extraordinary thing to say that "bury" deter- 
mines nothing as to whether its object is to be immediately 
taken out of a state of burial. So far as bury is concerned 
it contemplates nothing else, and if the burial is but for a 
moment this word has nothing to do with it; neither can 
it be used to express the idea of a momentary burial. 
Boys may, in sport, bury one another in the hay-mow or 
in a snow-bank; a vessel may, for a moment, be buried 
under a wave; but such brief burial never converts bury 
into dip ; nor is the idea in a dipping and in a momentary 
burial the same, whatever resemblance there may be in 
the brevity of continuance. Bury remains the strong word, 
and is used because of its power; while dip remains a feeble 
word. The same is true of pa-rCCco. It is never used to 
express a momentary condition; although that condition 



TIIE ACT — THE OBJECT — THE END. 97 

may be, and in some very few cases is, of short continu- 
ance. But in such cases there is always an element present 
which renders the word, in its peculiarity, appropriate; 
just as in the case of bury. It is never used to express 
the idea of ^a—w, even in brief mersions, any more than is 
bury under like circumstances. 

The statement respecting a living man put under water 
without intending to drown him, and the necessity for his 
"immediate withdrawal," is not better grounded in the 
merits of the case. I remember but one solitary case in 
the classics to which the supposed case is, at all, applicable. 

" Wherever the word is used with reference to such a 
case, he must be immediately withdrawn," has, therefore, 
a very sharp limitation. 

But even this case does not square with the language 
used. I know not of one case where a living man is 
simply put into the water, and withdrawn from it, by the 
party putting him in. To dip, requires that the one dip- 
ping should withdraw the object dipped. If I dip a man, 
I both put him in and take him out; but if I plunge a man, 
or souse a man, or immerse a man, though I do not intend 
to drown him, yet it is not implied that I withdraw him 
from the water; I may leave him to shift for himself. The 
withdrawing is necessary to a dipping; but the withdraw- 
ing would not necessarily convert a baptism into a dipping, 
although I know of no such feature in any classic baptism. 

Dr. Conant seeks to sustain the ritual dipping of a man 
into water, and his instant withdrawal, by the usage of the 
Greek word. It cannot be done. It cannot be done; not 
simply because of the brief continuance under the water, 
but because it is, and is intended to be, nothing more nor 
less than a dipping. 

If I put into, and withdraw promptly from water a bag 
of gold, I dip it; but if it slips from my hand and it sinks, 
although I may recover it within as brief a space of time 
as in the other case, it is not a case of dipping. Any ob- 
ject may sink, and remain in this condition for the briefest 
duration; still, sink is not converted into dip. Although, 

7 



98 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

therefore, Dr. Conant may find a very few cases in which 
the baptism was for a limited period, he can find no case 
in which a baptism can be converted into a dipping; there- 
fore, he can find no case of the use of this Greek word by 
which the ritual practice of dipping a man into water, as a 
baptism, can be justified. 

But it is said that " if a man is not taken out of the water 
he will be drowned, and that was never intended by Chris- 
tian baptism." 

But why was the man put into the water ? " Why, to be 
baptized." Well, baptize will put a man into water, but 
it never did and never will take him out. This Dr. Conant 
admits; but, he adds, as the man is not intended to be 
drowned, he must be taken out of the hands of baptize, 
which otherwise would drown him. In other words, the 
Holy Spirit has employed a word which requires, abso- 
lutely, disciples to be put under water without making any 
provision for their withdrawal; and Dr. Conant has to find 
some way to remedy the defect^ on the ground of an inference 
that they are not to be drowned ! And all this when fidxrio 
would have done just what Dr. Conant thinks necessary to 
volunteer to do, namely, to put in momentarily and with- 
draw; which word the Holy Spirit never once uses. Now, 
such an oversight (may the word be used without irrever- 
ence?) by the Holy Spirit is infinitely incredible. And the 
•Baptist system, which is responsible for originating such 
an idea, is, thereby, hopelessly ruined. 

All Greek writers refuse to interchange fia-xi%io and^a-rw; 
the Holy Spirit persistently refuses to employ /5a^rw, or to 
interchange it, in a single instance, with fia-xi^o) in speaking 
of Christian baptism; is it becoming in those who are 
"very jealous for the Holy Spirit" to substitute another 
word for that which the Holy Ghost teacheth? Or, re- 
taining the form of the word, to supplant it by using the 
meaning of a rejected word? But this is done by those 
who substitute fid-no for pa-ri^io ; or, who give to the latter 
word the meaning of the former. 

Thus, as we give our attention to what Baptist writers 



VALID BAPTISM, 99 

say in relation to the administration of the rite, we find 
that they break down at every point. 

1. There is a hopeless disagreement as to the command; 
whether it enjoins a specific act or not, and, if so, what is 
its precise nature. 

2. As to the object on which the act bears; the whole 
body says theory, a part of the body rejoins practice. 

3. The language of inspiration (we are told) puts dis- 
ciples under water, but makes no provision for getting 
them out. In this dilemma an unwritten command is 
added to the Scripture, on the authority of an inference 
(the necessity for which is self-created), and so life is saved ! 

VALID BAPTISM. 

The Baptist system rejects, as without validity, every 
baptism which does not bear certain marks which it lays 
down as essential. 

Professor Jewett: " The immersion of the subject in water 
is essential to the ordinance." 

" In baptism, we are commanded to perform the act 
represented bv the word baptize." 

These quotations so thoroughly represent the Baptist 
sentiment, on this point, that the multiplication of quota- 
tions is needless. 

Four things are declared " essential to the ordinance." 

1. Immersiou. 2. Immersion of the subject. 3. Im- 
mersion of the subject in water. 4. Immersion of the 
subject in water by the act commanded in baptize. 

1. Immersion. — Although Baptist writers do not use this 
word either with precision or with uniformity, yet they 
will acknowledge that it carries inness of position with 
it. Xow, we wish to ask, does this word, representing 
BaTZTtafia, carry with it any limitation as to the time of con- 
tinuance ? If there is no limitation of time in this word, 
is there any limitation of time in any word adjunct with 
it? If there is not, then, we ask, on what authority any 
limitation of continuance can be introduced ? 



100 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

We affirm that there is no limitation in. the word, and 
that it cannot be used for a momentary mersion without an 
adjunct word expressing that idea; and that a designed 
"momentary mersion" is not mersion; but is mersion quali- 
fied, so as to transform it and make necessary the employ- 
ment of another term for its expression, to wit, a dipping ; 
which term is rejected by the Holy Spirit,, and thus a dip- 
ping baptism is rejected. This is as certain as that Scrip- 
ture is Scripture. 

2.. Immersion of the subject.. — This feature has been al- 
ready considered. If this be essential to validity, it is not 
more certain that a part is not the whole,, than that dip- 
ping the head and shoulders is not valid baptism. Samson 
perishes with the Philistines. 

3. Immersion of the subject in water. — Some Baptists feel a 
necessity for protecting the immersed from being drowned. 
There is good reason for the interposition of their kind 
offices. The facts to which they appeal are, however, not 
only inadequate for their purpose but inappropriate. They 
may prove that a person immersed in water need not, of 
necessity,. be drowned; but they do not prove that "immer- 
sion in water" would not, of its own force (uninterfered 
with), drown any living man. The dipping into water of 
a living man will not, of its own proper force,, drown any 
one. There is no need for the interference of any outside 
agency to save life. It is as much a part of the contract in 
dipping, a man to take him out of the water as to put him 
into it. In immersing a man there is no such requirement. 
It is the mersion only, the position of inness, which is 
called for, and there the object mersed would abide, to all 
eternity, unless some outside influence should recover it. 

The thought which is in immersion has no tendency to 
pass into the thought which is in dipping. Whatever com- 
mon elements they may have, they still have a great gulf 
separating the conception in the one from the conception 
in the other. The command to hang a man is not fulfilled 
by suspending him for a moment. The command to im- 
merse a man is not fulfilled by dipping him for an instant. 



RESULT — EX PARTE. 101 

The reply to this: "It is mildness to suppose that the 
Scriptures command men to be drowned,'' is met by the 
echo, "It is madness" to suppose that the Scriptures com- 
mand men to be put into a condition by a word, which 
unlimited necessarily drowns, without attaching any limit- 
ation to that word; while, all the time, they only meant to 
express an act of the severest limitations, and which brings 
no peril with it, and which might have been, precisely, 
expressed by another word. 

Baptists put Christian disciples under the water, and 
are, then, under the necessity of saving them from their 
"watery tomb" by changing fta-r^a) into fidzTat. 

¥e do not object to men being taken out of the water 
after they have been improperly put into it; but we object 
to men being dipped into water, and then claiming to have 
received a Grcckly baptism. 

There is nothing more true than the proposition, which 
is contradictory of that of Koger Williams's friend : " Dip- 
ping is" not "Baptizing, and Baptizing is" not "Dipping." 

4. The act. — Valid baptism requires that "the act com- 
manded" should be performed. The act performed by 
Baptists is that of dipping. This, then, must be the act 
commanded, and the act which stamps validity. But 
Baptist writers, now, admit that the commanding word 
does not " always" mean to dip (soon they will admit that 
it never means so); how do they know that it means so in 
this command? Such confession puts them all " at sea" 
as to the act commanded, and "valid baptism" floats awaj-, 
beyond their grasp, into regions all unknown. 

RESULT— EX PAETE. 

The sentiment and practice of Baptists (as presented by 
themselves), on all the vital features of this controversy — 
the meaning of the word; the manner of administration; 
and the requisites to validity ; — have, now, passed under 
review. 

The object has been to hear what the friends of these 



102 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

views had to say, and to suggest any difficulties which 
might lie on the face of their own statements; not to 
gather them up from other quarters. They have claimed 
that they were possessed of absolute truth on all these 
points; and, that that truth was of such transparent clear- 
ness, that failure to recognize it must be due not to intel- 
lectual unenlightenrnent, but to moral obliquity. 

Against the latter part of this position I make neither 
complaint nor offer defence. It is a part of "the senti- 
ment" which concerns much more those who give it utter- 
ance than those against whom it is uttered. In regard to 
the former part, I would say : 

1. As to the word. — Baptist writers, speaking for them- 
selves, show either, that they do not understand the mean- 
ing of this Greek word, or, they can find no representative 
word for it in the English language. (1.) Some (Carson) 
say: It means a definite act — to dip, and nothing but dip; 
while in cases of actual usage, when this word cannot be 
used, they employ plunge, sink, overwhelm, &c, ad libitum. 

(2.) Some (Gale) say : It means a definite act — to dip ; 
yet, perhaps, does not so much express the act, as the 
resultant condition. 

(3.) Some (Cox, Morell, Fuller) say: It means a definite 
act — to dip ; and, also, means various other acts — to flow, 
to rise up, to pour — which issue in covering over their 
object. 

(4.) Some (Conant) say : It means an act — to immerse, 
to immerge, to submerge, to dip, to plunge, to imbathe, to 
whelm — and yet it means none of these, but a ground idea 
which is expressed by them all — to put into — or, to put 
under. 

This elaborate explanation is an earnest endeavor to find 
a nexus binding all divergencies into unity. It is unsuc- 
cessful. Duplicity remains. Act and condition are both 
sought to be preserved, and the truth perishes between 
them. 

2. As to the ritual administration. — The statement of their 
sentiment and practice in this matter, as given by them- 



RESULT — EX PARTE. 103 

selves, shows not a diversity, but a contradiction as irre- 
concilable as the declaration that one thing is another and 
different thing; or that the whole and its part are equal to 
each other. 

3. As to validity. — The elements essential to validity are 
given with unquestionable honesty of intent (as, undoubt- 
edly, are all other views), inasmuch as their own fondly 
cherished form perishes in common with all others. 

With such results of Baptist research standing out upon 
the face of their writings, it would seem to be neither a 
moral delinquency, nor even a work of supererogation, to 
institute an independent investigation of this subject, in- 
quiring — " What is truth ?" 



PART II. 

INQUIRY ENTEBED UPON INDEPENDENTLY. 



METHOD OF INVESTIGATION. 

Under the conviction, that the developments made indi- 
cate some essential error, which vitiates the results of Bap- 
tist investigation, we will enter upon an examination of the 
subject for ourselves. 

If this is to be done with any degree of thoroughness, it 
will require patience to traverse the whole ground, knowl- 
edge of well-settled principles of interpretation, candor 
and competency in their just application, and common 
sense to know that a universal conclusion cannot, safely, 
rest on a single particular, nor on many, but only upon 
what remains after a matured consideration of the action 
and reaction of all cases of usage upon each other. 

While a satisfactory result might be reached by an ex- 
clusive examination of the word in. question, it is un- 
doubtedly true that we shall find assistance by conducting 
the investigation side by side, with some closely related, 
yet essentially differing, word. Such a word is ftd-rw. 

It is, also, manifest that any conclusions reached will be 
more firmly established, if they shall be sustained by the 
usage of correspondent words in other languages. 

The terms which in Latin correspond with fiaxriZui and 
pdTtTiD are mergo and tingo; and in English immerse (strip- 
ped of its Baptist usage), and dip. If these words, in these 
languages, show similar usage, resemblance, and diversity, 
moving side by side without coalescence, each with deeply 

(104) 



METHOD OF INVESTIGATION. 105 

marked and distinguishing individuality, then, we may be 
assured that these words do not represent a sameness of 
conception, or a difference founded on accident, but which 
is grounded in the necessities of thought and language. 

We shall avail ourselves of this source of help toward 
the firmer establishment of truth. 

Beside the general reason, now assigned for the intro- 
duction of a detailed consideration of the usage of /9cwrr<w, 
there is a special, and imperative, reason found in the 
fact, that these two words have been confounded together 
under the assumption that they were of identically the same , 
val ue. 

While this statement has an application beyond our 
Baptist brethren, it applies to them with special force. It 
is only quite recently that they have acknowledged, under 
the leadership of Dr. Carson, that fid-rco was possessed of 
a secondary meaning (to dye), and that this meaning was 
independent of the modal act of dipping; so much so, in- 
deed, that/?d-rw could express dyeing effected by sprinkling 
as well as by any other mode. This admission is of mo- 
ment both in itself and as indicative that long and earnest 
asseveration, as to what is or is not the meaning of a word, 
cannot, safely, be accepted for proof. 

Dr. Carson, who has led his friends in this change, still 
asseverates that there is no difference between the primary 
meaning of ,3d-ra> and the meaning of fta-TiZu, the latter not 
having the meaning to dye. Ko attempt is made to prove 
this by showing a coincidence of usage.' Such attempt 
never will be made by any thoughtful man. It is a' matter, 
however, of the first importance to Baptist "sentiment and 
practice" to make fta-T^io responsible for a dipping; con- 
sequently the meaning of fid-ru has been, most illegiti- 
mately, bound on to this word, and is called into use on 
every convenient occasion; and is made of divine authority 
as u the act commanded" by words of inspiration. 

If such relationship between these words is radically 
erroneous, then all Baptist argumentation upon the sub- 
ject is thoroughly vitiated. 



106 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

This we believe to be true. It is our duty, by adequate 
evidence, to prove that it is so. This necessitates a pre- 
sentation of the usage of both words. 

BAnnza. 

CLASS OP WORDS TO WHICH IT BELONGS. 

It has already been stated that to merse is the primary 
meaning which we assign to this word ; and that it does 
not, of its own force, express any form of act, but the result 
of some act, or acts (involved as necessary to the accom- 
plishment of the effect, but) unexpressed. It belongs, 
therefore, to that class of verbs which make immediate 
demand, not for a definite act to be done, but for an effect, 
a state or a condition, to be accomplished. 

As this meaning, at once and forever, effects a divorce 
between it and its fellow, it is desirable that it should 
receive illustration and enforcement by an appeal to a few 
words of the same class, and of similar, general import.. 

BUKY— DROWN— WHELM. 

1. To bury. — This word does not announce an act to be 
done, but a result to be secured. 

Home Tooke says: "Burial is the diminutive from 
Burgh; a defended or fortified place. To bury means to 
defend; as Gray in his Elegy expresses it, — 

1 These bones from insult to protect. ' 
i 

Sepelire has the same meaning, — to hedge, to keep out of 
field or garden." 

To bury, then, demands protection for its object by 
position within some inclosing material. How, by what 
acts this end demanded is to be secured, the word says 
nothing. Many cases, of the primary use illustrating this 
statement, are unnecessary. 

"Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the 
field of Machpelah." 



BURY — DROWN— WHELM. 107 

The place of burial being a natural excavation, the acts 
necessary would be controlled by that fact. 

11 And laid him in a sepulchre which w T as hewn out of a 
rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre.' , 

The preparatory and essential act, in this case, was the 
hewing out of the rock a receptacle wherein the body 
might be safely deposited. The act of rolling the great 
stone unto the door completed the security and the burial. 

" The soldiers slain were buried in trenches dug on the 
field of battle." 

Here a new act, digging, is introduced in the performance 
of the requirement. 

" In the deep bosom of the ocean buried." 

Quite a different class of acts are called into exercise in 
an ocean burial, from that demanded by a burial in a cave, 
or a rock sepulchre, or an earth grave. 

" The daughter of the Indian chief was buried on a plat- 
form, raised some feet, on poles." 

Such diversity of act, however, trenches in nowise on the 
requirement of "bury;" it said nothing in relation to act; 
its demand was that its object should be placed in some 
protecting inclosure. This was done when the body was 
deposited and made secure in .the cave, the sepulchre, the 
trench, the ocean cavern, or the elevated platform. Bury 
asks nothing as to the quo modo of the acts by which the 
end was secured. 

The secondary or metaphorical use of this word is equally 
devoid of all reference to act. 

It is desirable to note this usage, as we shall have much 
to do with similar usage of the word under special con- 
sideration, and our conclusions may be not a little in- 
fluenced thereby. 



" He buried himself in a monastery." 

No act is suggested by the use of the word in this pas- 
sage. JSTo act can assist in the elucidation of the meaning. 
The act done was crossing the threshold and the closing of 



108 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

the door. Does the interpretation tnrn on these acts? It 
would not be difficult to show a resemblance between 
these acts and the carrying a dead body into a cave and 
closing its mouth by a stone; but does any sane man 
imagine that we are called, in the interpretation of this 
passage, to inquire by what acts a burial is effected ? Is 
such secondary use of bury to be regulated by carrying 
into a sepulchre, lowering down into a pit, sliding off from 
a plank, or lifting upon a platform? Do not these various 
and contradictory forms of act show the absurdity of an 
interpretation which should proceed upon such a basis? 
Are we not compelled to put wholly out of view the acts, 
of whatever kind, by which the burial is effected, and take 
the resultant condition as that which, alone, claims atten- 
tion? 

It is, also, important to bear in mind that a secondary 
use which is based on an act has, of necessity, a severity of 
limitation which does not belong to similar use based on 
condition. An act is, necessarily, limited in its nature ; it 
must take some specific character; it follows, therefore, 
that a metaphorical use must be characterized by like 
limitation. 

It is not so with condition. There is room, here, for a 
variety of thoughts, and in specific cases one or another 
may be chosen and brought into special relief. 

In the word " bury," the condition suggested may give 
rise to many varied shades of thought. Among these may 
be enumerated concealment, removal, restraint, deep pene- 
tration, &c. 

In the present case, it is obvious that the idea intended 
to be expressed is that of concealment. There is no sug- 
gestion of a funeral procession. There is no picture de- 
signed to be drawn by the writer; but as an object buried 
is, thereby, concealed, shut out of view, separated from 
other things, the use of the word is justified as expressive 
of the idea of seclusion when applied to one entering into 
a monastery. 

If it be said, the phraseology — " buried in a monastery" — 



BURY — DROWN — WHELM. 109 

implies figure ; I answer, the phraseology is made to har- 
monize with bury; but does not, therefore, require any 
picturing of the imagination. Should figure and picture 
he still insisted upon, I, then, ask for the sketch. (1.) "What 
shall the monastery represent? A cave like that of Mach- 
pelah, or a pit dug in the earth? (2.) Is the occupant of the 
tomb to he represented as dead or alive? (3.) Who effects 
the burial? The text says, the buried man "buried him- 
self." How shall this be pictured ? 

Is it not obvious that, in such phrases, neither can 
"bury" nor "in" be pressed, hardly, upon for the proof 
Of figure; but that a meaning is to be attached to them, 
derived from the primary use, such as the case demands. 



11 Thy hand, great Chaos, lot the curtain fall ; 
And universal darkness buries all." 

Will any one insist upon "the act" of burial here? 
What will be made out of " letting fall the curtain"? Is 
this the manner in which graves are dug? 

If any one will say that Pope has given us a figure in 
the first line, I will, most cordially, assent. No one need 
be troubled to find the picture. It is all drawn for us — 
"great chaos" — "thy hand" — "curtain falling" — the ele- 
ments of a grand and awful picture are all there; but 
when any one goes on to join with such a scene another 
figure, in which a tomb, &c, loom up, they must think 
that the writer is bereft of his senses. 

Darkness and the grave are always associated, and, in 
fact, are concomitants. Both hide their objects from view. 
So much, therefore, of the word bury as expresses this 
idea, may be taken when that term is used in connection 
with darkness, and all else pertaining to it be dismissed as 
inappropriate. This is so done here. Such modified use 
of words is better designated as a secondary use than as 
figure. 



110 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

rt I have, as when the sun doth light a storm, 
Bitry'd this sigh in a wrinkle of a smile." 

Shall I, again, ask for " the act of burial" ? Shall I, 
again, ask, whether we are to convert, under the demands 
of figure, " a wrinkle of a smile" into a grave? Is such 
a method of interpretation in harmony with the compari- 
son? What is the point of resemblance between " the sun 
lighting up a storm" and "putting a sigh into a grave"? 
As sunbeams do not dig graves for storms, neither do 
smiles for sighs. 

Is it not true, and is it not enough to say; an object which 
is buried is, thereby, made to disappear; and as a sigh is 
made to disappear by a smile, therefore a smile may be 
said to bury — cause to disappear — a sigh ? 

A word, in such secondary use, must not be interpreted 
as expressing all that can be put into it, in view of its 
primary use, but just so much as .the peculiarity of the case 
may demand. 

" Princeton has gone on in the accustomed way ; Pro- 
fessors buried in the immensity of their subjects." 

Does the sentiment turn on act or condition ? An object 
which is buried is placed in v a condition which removes it 
from the surface. Professors, engaged in study, advance 
beyond the surface of things, progressing into the depths 
of their great themes; and to express this shade of thought, 
profound and not superficial study, " bury" may be used. 
In such, all thought of a grave is out of question. 



u Brutus. Give me a bowl of wine : 
In this I bury all unkindness, Cassius. 

Cassius. My heart is thirsty for that noble pledge: 
I cannot drink too much of Brutus' love." 

" The act" of burial, here, is the drinking of a bowl 
of wine. Does the sentiment turn on the act of drink- 
ing ? The wine-cup, emptied in friendly pledge, put away, 
buried "all unkindness." This is the idea made emphatic 



BURY — DROWN — WHELM. Ill 

and impressive by the use of a word with modified mean- 
ing and out of its ordinary application. 



" But in your bride you bury brotherhood." 

Poetry would become marvellously prosaic under the 
attempt to transfer such language, interpretatively, to the 
canvass. The " bride" being converted into a plot of 
ground into which a pit is sunk, while coffined " brother- 
hood" is being sadly deposited in its depths ! 

Better let the poetry remain, and call on secondary use 
to show how, that as an object buried is destroyed, there- 
fore, when marriage destroys " brotherhood " it is proper 
to say: " In your bride you bury brotherhood," — meaning 
that the bride is the occasion of the destruction of fra- 
ternal affection. 



" He lay buried in the deep lethargic sleep which was 
his only refuge from the misery of consciousness." 

" The act" of burial, here, was drinking to excessive 
intoxication. Does such "act" govern the interpretation? 
Common sense, no less, revolts at such interpretation as 
would convert sleep into a pit — a a deep" pit — in the earth 
or a cavern in the sea, at the bottom of which should "lie" 
the drunken sleeper, covered over, buried, with earth in 
the one case, or with sea billows in the other. 

When it is said of a man who lies at our feet, in full 
view, that "he is buried in sleep," is it not patently absurd 
to say that, in such case, "bury" means to cover over, "to 
hide from view"? Is not the man uncovered? Is he not 
in full view? Does the speaker mean to stultify himself, 
or those whom he addresses? Such interpretation is out 
of all question. 

An object which is buried — or burghed — is protected 
from anything which would assail it; but this very pro- 
tection becomes the cause of restraint. What protects the 
buried from the approach of enemies, at the same time 
prevents the buried from going forth out of the protecting 



112 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

inclosure. Protection and restraint, therefore, are ideas 
which equally belong to the idea of burial ; and either of 
them, according to the indication of the case, may be 
taken out of a buried condition. Now, the only idea 
which is admissible in the case before us is that of re- 
straint, or in intimate conjunction with protection. The 
sleeper is held bound, in every sense, physical and intellec- 
tual, by profound lethargy; and while he is. thus under 
restraint from which he is powerless to escape, he has 
sought this very bondage "as a protection, a refuge from 
the misery of consciousness." 

"Buried" does, most legitimately, mean, in such use, 
to be under the 'power of; and such burial becomes a pro- 
tection, a refuge, a burgh from a stinging conscience. 



tl mention but one other case : 

"Before I freely speak my mind herein, 
You shall not only take the sacrament 
To bury mine intents, but to effect 
"Whatever I shall happen to devise." 

This presents an absolute use of the word. Are we to 
be guided by "an act" (to dig, for example), to the right 
understanding of it? Where is the grave to be dug in 
which "mine intents" are to be interred? 

Every object "buried" is placed in a covered condition. 
Every such covered object is concealed. To bury em- 
braces the idea of concealment. This is what is de- 
manded by the speaker; "take the sacrament to conceal 
mine intents." "Bury" expresses the thought emphati- 
cally — conceal profoundly, so that they shall be protected 
against the knowledge of all persons. 

These, and like cases of usage, prove : (1.) Bury does not 
belong to the class of words which gives expression to an 
act to be done; but it makes demand for a condition to be 
effected, leaving the act unexpressed as to its form, and 
which it may take at will. 



BURY — DROWN — WHELM. 113 

(2.) Such usage is not well designated as figure, but 
should be regarded as a secondary use in which a modified 
meaning (readily deducible from the original meaning) is 
presented, while the structure of the phrase is made con- 
formable to the leading word. 

(3.) Greatly varied shades of meaning, and sometimes 
even material diversities of thought, may be exhibited in 
the secondary use of this class of words. 

2. To drown. — !No definite act is expressed by this word, 
nor is its import in anywise dependent on any form of act. 
It expresses, primarily, the condition of an object covered 
by water; and then the effects, the influence exerted, 
upon such objects by such covered condition; and then, 
by an additional step, influence, of a correspondent char- 
acter, where there was no, real or supposed, covering with 
water. 

That modification of the original meaning, which em- 
braces the influence exerted over the life of living ani- 
mals, and covered by water, is now the most common; 
and is likely, unless guarded against, to give coloring to 
the use of the word where such coloring should find no 
place. 

This modified use of a word, originally expressive of such 
condition, is most natural, not to say most necessary, and 
will find exemplification in other kindred words; especially 
in that word, to determine the usage of which is the object 
of this inquiry. 

"A great w^aue of the sea cometh sometyme with so 
great a violence, that it drowneth the shyppe: and the same 
harme doth sometyme the small dropes of water that en- 
treth through a lytell creueys, in to the tymbre and in to 
the botomc of the shyppe, yf men be so negligente that 
they discharge hem not by tymes. And, therefore, al- 
though there be a difference betwixt' these two causes of 
drowning, algates the shyppe is drowned" — Tale of Chaucer, 
fol. 74, p. 2. 

This quotation shows an object " drowned" that is desti- 

8 



114 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

tute of life. No immediate or special influence is exerted 
over it by the condition into which it is introduced, al- 
though from the nature of the case it perishes. 

It, also, furnishes us with evidence, that as long ago as 
Chaucer's time it was a settled matter that the act by 
which the drowning was brought about had nothing to do 
with giving character to the drowning. It might be the 
on-rushing of a mountain billow or tiny drops distilling 
through a . " ly tell creueys," " algates" (in all ways) "the 
shyppe was drowned." 



" At length his courser plunged, 
And threw him off ; the waves whelmed over him, 
And helpless in his heavy arms, he drowned.' '' 

This is a perfectly clear case, in which — (1.) Drown does 
not express either plunge, throw, or whelm, — the acts en- 
gaged in the drowning. (2.) E"or does it express the covered 
condition by water, as in the case of the " shyppe." Such 
condition exists, unquestionably; but it has been already 
expressed by " the waves whelmed over him," and, there- 
fore, cannot be repeated by this word. (3.) It does express, 
directly, the influence exerted by such condition on a living 
man, — it extinguishes life. 



" These were events of such magnitude, it would seem 
to silence its tongue and drown its voice." 

This absolute use as clearly expresses influence, without 
any covering by water or anything else, as does the pre- 
ceding case express influence exerted by the covering 
material. This conclusion is based, not merely on the 
absence of any literal or figurative covering element in 
the statement, but because that which "drowns" is so rep- 
resented as to preclude its being used for any such pur- 
pose. It is the " magnitude of events" that "silences and 
drowns." The magnitude of events is not a drowning 
material, although well calculated to exert such power- 



BURY — DROWN — WHELM. 115 

ful influence (destructive in character) as " drown" fitly 
represents. 



11 Till drowned was sense, and shame, and right, and wrong." 

" What is this absorbs me quite? 
Steals my senses, shuts my sight, 
Drowns my spirit, draws ni} T breath ; 
Tell me, my soul, can this be death?" 

In both these passages Pope uses " drown" to express, 
directly, a destructive influence. To introduce an explana- 
tory water-flood is to drown out every feeling of propriety 
and just criticism. 

I will, only, farther call attention to the use of this word 
where the form of figure is used. It is of importance to 
have clear and just views as to the principles on which 
such language is employed, and the basis on which the 
interpretation must proceed. 



" All drown'd in sweat the panting mother flies, 
And the big tears roll trickling from her eyes." 

" Drown'd in sweat" is conceivable as a literal, physical 
fact. " Sweat" is a liquid capable of drowning a living 
animal covered by it; and we can conceive of it as being 
so multiplied as to be sufficient to drown, literally, the 
hind chased by a lion, of which Pope here speaks. Some 
insist on the most severely literal interpretation of such 
language, and demand that the imagination shall be taxed 
"to picture this animal as lying under a pool of "sweat" 
until " drown'd;" for has not the poet said, "drown'd in 
sweat?" 

Most persons will be too much disgusted by such " a 
picture" to care to look long upon it: so we turn away 
satisfied that " drowned in" does not, after all, mean 
covered over to suffocation " in sweat." 

We are compelled to qualify such language by the exi- 
gency of the case. " Drown" can only be used to express, 



116 CLASSIC BAPTISM, 

with deep emphasis, the profuseness of the sweating; and 
"m" is used as the necessary particle to harmonize with 
drown, and is no more to be pressed, on the ground of its 
meaning in cases of literal drowning, than in the word 
(drown) which originates its use. This particle, here, 
merely serves to point out that which " drown" declares 
to have been in excessive profusion, and all idea of inness 
is necessarily dropped. There is a superficial covering 
with the fluid. 



M My man monster hath drowned his tongue in sack." 

Again; "drowned in sack" is a physical possibility, and, 
more, has actually been clone. Is it meant, by Shakspeare, 
that this language should be understood literally? He 
does not mean "drowned" in the sense — deprived of life; 
"the tongue" is not so drowned. He does not mean 
" drowned" as simply covered over; such was neither the 
fact nor to the writer's purpose. He uses it to denote the 
destruction of the power of speech by excessive wine- 
drinking. As wine is a liquid and drown is destructive, 
the loss of the power of speech by drunkenness is well 
described as "a drowning of the tongue in sack." "In," 
here, being used, simply as the natural appendage to drown, 
cannot be pressed in its independent meaning; such mean- 
ing is unsuitable here. It points out the source of influ- 
ence which so drowned the tongue by its intoxicating 
quality as to destroy the power of intelligent speech; not 
the mode of doing it. 



"And drown' 'd, without the furious Ocean's aid, 
In suffocating sorrows, shares his tomb." 

"Drown'd in suffocating sorrows" is, literally, an im- 
possibility. Understood as figure, how is the language to 
be interpreted? (1.) "In," does not necessitate the imagin- 
ing " sorrows" to be a pool of water in which a drowning 
or a covering over must take place, any more than the 



BURY — DROWN — WHELM. 117 

same particle requires that " the hind" or * the tongue" 
should he thus introduced within " sweat" and " sack." 

(2.) "Drown'd" does not require the destruction of life; 
because " sorrow," with which it is associated, and the in- 
fluence of which it develops, does not destroy life neces- 
sarily. (3.) But life is, in this case, destroyed, and is indi- 
cated by "suffocating" and "tomb." "Suffocating" is not 
employed with a view to its own proper force (for it has 
no such force here), but in subordination to the use of 
"drown." Wq take out of " suffocating" so much as is 
indicative of death, and leave the special mode of death, 
indicated by this word, go, as inappropriate. In this we 
have confirmation of the explanation already given of 
" in." We take from this word so much as indicates the 
source of influence, and reject the form of inness as un- 
suitable to the case. A water picture of drowning is, ex- 
pressly, rejected. 



" In sorrow drown'd — but not in sorrow lost.' 7 

As " sorrow" does not kill by its own nature, " drown'd" 
becomes restricted, when used in connection with it (as well 
as in all other like cases), to a development of its influence 
as excessive and eminently painful. 

As in the previous case the appendages showed that the 
drowning was fatal, so, in this, Young shows us that it was 
not, — " drowned, but not lost." 



11 But though man, droicri'd in sleep 
"Withholds his homage, not alone I wake." 

If the mind receives the impression from "drown'd" of 
a covering fluid, it, at once, corrects itself as it encounters 
"in sleep," and says, "I was mistaken; there is no refer- 
ence here to water, but to sleep; the drowning must be 
qualified by the adjunct." Sleep cannot "drown;" but it 
can powerfully influence, and hold in still repose even- 
faculty both of body and mind; and as an object " drowned" 



118 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

is held under the influence of water in the highest degree, 
the phrase "drowned in sleep" must mean that the in- 
fluence of sleep is exerted over its object in a controlling 
degree, but not by being put into a pool. Sleep is not 
measured by quantity but by quality. It does not drown 
by its bulk, but by its intensity. Therefore, sleep which 
drowns is commonly represented as induced by the sprink- 
ling of soporific clew. Sprinkling can drown in sleep. 



" The 'grunting hogs alarm the neighbors round, 
And curs, girls, boys, and scolds, in the deep base are drown' d." 

It would be a most notable figure which would require 
the transformation of a the grunting of a hog" into a pool 
of water in which were exhibited — " scolds, boys, girls, 
and curs," struggling, sinking, and drowning ! 

Pope has scarcely indulged himself in such a freak of 
imagination. 

If it be said that "curs, girls, boys, and scolds" are not 
to be drowned, but only their noises, then I ask for special 
instruction as to the mode by which "noises" are drowned 
in a pool of water ! 

If any are better pleased to understand "drown" as 
representing a destructive influence proceeding from "the 
deep base" of the grunters and overpowering all lesser 
noises, we shall make no objection. 

One or two instances, where there is no form of figure 
in the phraseology, and where none is intended, but a 
direct expression of influence, without any water imagery 
inducing death or covering, will now be adduced. 



" What is a drunken man like, fool ? 
Like a drown'd man, a fool, and a madman: 
One draught, above heat, makes him a fool ; 
The second mads him, and a third drowns him." 

Here are four stages in the progress of wine-drinking, 
as described by Shakspeare : (1), it heats; (2), it fools; 



BURY — DROWN — WHELM. 119 

(3), it macls; (4), it — "puts in a pool of water"! or (if pre- 
ferred), inside of a full cask of wine! 

Is this such interpretation as befits the dramatist? To 
make this interpretation harmonize with the entire pas- 
sage, "to heat" should put the wine-bibber into the element 
up to the knees; " to fool" should place him in up to the 
breast; "to mad" should raise it to his lips; while "to 
drown" should give the coup de grace and put him under. 
A final "draught" might render a man "dead drunk," but 
could hardly (by figure) flood him. 

Shakspeare uses "drown" in this passage without refer- 
ence to suffocating or covering, but directly expressing the 
power of wine to control and to stupefy every physical and 
intellectual power. Wine heats literally; fools, literally; 
mads, literally; droicns, literally; in the secondary sense, 
here employed, namely, suspending the exercise of every 
faculty, physical and intellectual. 



"But, .idieu ! these foolish drops 
Do somewhat drown my manly spirit; adieu! " 

" Somewhat" is not a proper qualifying term to apply to 
the extinction of life, or to the covering over with water. 
It is a very suitable term to qualify the exercise of in- 
fluence exerted to a limited degree. Tender emotion 
softens the sternness of a manly spirit; such emotion is 
shown by tears; tears suggest the use of "drown;" and 
drown is employed to denote the destructive influence of 
tender emotion, as manifested by "foolish drops" upon a 
" manly spirit." 

To magnify " foolish drops" into a pool of water, into 
which "manly spirit" is introduced and covered over until 
" somewhat" suffocated, may afford exercise to an erratic 
imagination ; but it is a work in which common sense will 
decline to have any part. Such usage shows that drown 
has passed from its original use expressive of coveriug 



120 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

over with a fluid, and, specifically, extinguishing life by 
the influence of such covering; as, also, that it has laid 
aside the mode of figure as the vehicle for the expression 
of its thought, and does directly express a destructive 
influence tinged with such individuality of character as is 
inseparable from its origin. 

In this varied usage of drown there is no form of "act" 
which appears to give it existence, or to determine its im- 
port at any point whatever. 

In cases of figure, there is no justification for putting 
the object into a pool of water, the form of the figure 
being designed, merely, to give strong development to the 
influence of the adjunct; nor is it necessary to conceive 
the object as placed within this adjunct (sometimes im- 
practicable, and sometimes unsuitable), for the purpose 
of developing its influence, and this is thoroughly done by 
the word " drown." 

The usage of this word shows : (1.) A condition — object 
covered by a fluid. 

(2.) The influence exerted over the object so covered. 

(3.) Influence exerted over an object without covering, 
real or supposed. 

3. To Whelm. — Expresses no form of act, but condition 
effected by a variety of acts. This condition is, like the 
preceding, a covered condition; but the covering substance 
is more commonly brought over the object, and, as espe- 
cially characteristic, with a power which cannot be suc- 
cessfully resisted. This peculiar feature adapts this word, 
especially, to mark irresistible influence; and having no 
such special limitations as belong to bury and drown, it is 
adapted to a much wider range of application. As there 
is a variety of words which express covered condition with- 
out adaptation to a broad application, "whelm" has a less 
common use to express a physical covering, and a much 
more extended application to metaphysical, or all un- 
physical influences which are irresistible in their power. 
"Whelm and overwhelm do not differ in value. The latter 



BURY — DROWN — WHELM. 121 

simply expresses what is essentially implied in the former. 
Whelm orcr-comes hy coming over irresistibly. 

" By the mysgydynge of the stcrysman he w T as set upon 
the pylys of the brydge, and the barge whelmyd, so that all 
were drowned." — Fabian, Chronicle, 1429. 



11 On those «ursed engines' triple row, 
They saw them whelmed, and all their confidence 
Under the weight of mountains bury'd deep." 

11 Plung'd in the deep forever let me lie, 
Whelm 'd under seas." 

These three passages show "whelm" used in connection 
with "drown'd," "bury'd," "plung'd," and in marked 
distinction from each of them. In the last "plunged" is 
stated to be "the act" from which the whelming results; 
and in every other case there is an act by which this 
covered condition is induced which is not expressed by 
whelm. 



" The water is ever fresh and newe 
That whelmeth up, with waucs bright, 
The mountenance of two fingers hight." 

" How must it groan in a new deluge whelm'd, 
But not of waters." 

(i To whelm some city under waves of fire." 

"Old Dulness heaves the head, 
And snatched a sheet of Thule from her bed, 
Sudden she flies, and whelms it o'er the pyre; 
Down sink the flames, and with a hiss expire." 

11 Covereth it by whelming a bushel over it." 

11 Whelm some things over them and keep them there." 

The acts involved in these transactions are diverse in 
their forms, but all effect a covered condition which over- 
comes by its power. It is, also, to be noted that there is 



122 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

no such limitation of this word to fluids as to require the 
interpretation of figurative, or secondary use, on the as- 
sumption of such primary use. 



"Before her mother Love's bright Queen appears 
Overwhelm' d with anguish and dissolved in tears." 

" Those hangings with their worn out graces, 
Long beards, long noses, and pale face% 
Are such an antiquated scene 
They overwhelm me with the spleen." 

" Guilty and guiltless find an equal fate, 
And one vast ruin tuhelm the Olympian state." 

" Some accidental gust of opposition 
O'erturns the fabric of presumptuous reason, 
And whelms the swelling architect beneath it." 

"Of grievous mischefes, which a wicked fay 
Had wrought, and many whelm'd in deadly pain." 

"Joy 
Invades, possesses, and overwhelms the soul 
Of him whom Hope has by a touch made whole." 

" Overwhelmed at once with wonder, grief, and joy, 
He pressed him much to quit his base employ." 

"And moated round with fathomless destruction, 
Sure to receive and whelm them in their fall." 

u Who perish at their request, and whelm' 'd 
Beneath her load of lavish grants expire." 

"At the first glance, in such an overwhelm 
Of wonderful, on man's astonished sight 
Hushes Omnipotence." 

" An overwhelming apparition. Like an apparition from 
the grave, you startled me from my self-possession and 
judgment." 

" He came down from his throne; he struggled forward 
a few steps, like one who is weak from some whelming emo- 
tion, and laid his trembling hand" \ . . 



BURY — DROWN — WHELM. 123 

" To overthrow law and in one self-born hour, 
To plant and overwhelm custom." 

It is unnecessary to dwell on the specialties presented 
by these cases. They show the broad use of the word ap- 
plicable to any case of overcoming influence. Anguish 
and joy, wonder and fear, emotion of any controlling kind 
gives occasion for its use. A gust of opposition, mischiefs 
of a fay, old tapestry hangings, as well as the wonders of 
the infinite firmament, may, equally, whelm. 

Such usage makes manifest the error of interpreting 
whelm by the form of an act or by a rush of waters. 

A few examples of the usage of a word expressing a 
definite form of action will place in bolder relief the differ- 
ence between such usage and that of a word expressing 
not the form of an act, but resultant condition. 

Take the word 'plunge, which expresses an act character- 
ized by rapidity and force of movement, entering, usually, 
into a fluid element without return. 



" He said, and climbed a stranded lighter's height, 
Shot to the black abyss, and plung'd downright. 
The Senior's judgment all the crowd admire, 
"Who but to sink the deeper, rose the higher. 
Next Smedley div'd; slow circles dimpled o'er 
The quaking mud, that clos'd and op'd no more. 
All look, all sigh, and call on Smedley lost: 
Smedley in vain resounds through all the coast. 
Then * essay'd; scarce vanished out of sight. 
He buoys up instant, and returns to light." 

Dunciad, 285-296. 

The annotator on Smedley's case remarks: " The alle- 
gory evidently demands a person dipped in scandal, and 
deeply immersed in dirty work." 

His comment on the person denoted by "*" is, "A gen- 
tleman of genius and spirit who has secretly dipt in some 
papers of this kind." 

This whole passage is one of honest figure. In true 
picture figure there is no change in the meaning of words 
employed, and, therefore, w T e can learn, here, the meaning 



124 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

of " plunge," and other words, as well as if an actual 
transaction was recounted. The passage is of special in- 
terest, as it presents, not only the characteristic use and 
meaning of "plunge," but, also, of sink, dip., and immerse. 

" Plunge" here, as elsewhere, expresses an act charac- 
terized by rapid and forcible movement entering into a 
fluid element without return. 

"Dive" expresses an act with similar characteristics with 
the peculiarity of entering the element head foremost. 

" Sink" expresses an act characterized by a downward 
movement without return. 

" Dip" is not found, verbally, in the text; but its nature, 
as an act, is very graphically described — " Scarce vanished 
out of sight, he buoys up instant and returns to light." 
Unlike plunge, dive, sink, dip makes provision for the 
return of its object out of the element into which it has 
been introduced. By this characteristic it is radically 
separated from these and all like words which carry their 
object into an element but do not bring it out. The 
secondary usage of these words is controlled by, and made 
wholly diverse in conception by reason of, this distinguish- 
ing feature. 

The commentator on the text uses the word dip, but not 
in its primary meaning. " Who was secretly dipt in some 
papers of this kind." Here " dipt" cannot be used in 
figure, properly speaking; for in figure the primary mean- 
ing remains unchanged, while dipping into papers is an 
impossible conception and cannot be employed as a figure. 
We are necessitated to give to it a secondary meaning, 
namely, "slightly engaged" in. This is an obvious second- 
ary meaning, resulting from the primary, literal, entering 
slightly into a fluid. " In papers," as already stated, does 
not require inness of position, but is used to be in harmony 
with dip, and with that word modified must not be pressed 
upon. But dip is, also, used by the annotator in a quite 
different sense; " dipped in scandal" is phraseology based 
on the idea of dyeing, and "scandal" is represented as a 
dyeing material. "Dip" may, therefore, be taken as ex- 



MEANING MORE FULLY STATED. 125 

pressing directly to dye, or, indirectly, as the result of clip- 
ping into a coloring element, represented in the text by 
" quaking mud," and in the note by " scandal." To dip 
wets, dyes, stains, defiles, according to circumstances. "Im- 
mersed in dirty work" harmonizes, as to strength (while 
differing in conception), with "dipped in scandal;" the 
unity arising from the power which is in "scandal" to 
effect a strong and abiding influence ; it is the very oppo- 
site, as to strength y from "dipt in some papers." There 
is nothing in " papers" to give any adventitious power to 
the essential feebleness which belongs to " dip," while 
"immerse" literally denotes completeness of intusposition, 
and in secondary use complete, controlling influence, or 
thorough in contradistinction from superficicd engagedness. 

It is seldom that we have so many of these words 
brought together with their peculiarities and modifica- 
tions so sharply defined. Plunge, dive, sink, dip, express 
sharply defined acts, with clear r distinguishing differences, 
separating each from each, but especially dip from all the 
others. Immerse expresses no such act, but condition of 
intusposition the result of any competent act. 



11 Profoundcr in the fathomless abyss 
Of folly, plunging in pursuit of death." 

11 So from the king the shining warrior flies, 
And phmg'd amicUt the thickest Trojans lies." 

" If glorious deeds afford thy soul delight, 
Behold ma plunging in the thickest fight." 

11 Or plung'd in lakes of bitter washes lie, 
Or wedged whole ages in a bodkin's eye." 

"O conscience! into what abyss of fears 
And horrors hast thou driv'n me ? out of which 
I find no way; from deep to deeper piling' d." 

It is obvious, without multiplying quotations, that the 
word maintains in metaphorical use its peculiarities as an 
act, expressing something which is done in a manner which 



126 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

demands a descriptive term denotive of earnestness and 
force. It expresses an act defined by certain character- 
istics in opposition to a condition. 

It is to the class of words represented by bury, drown, 
and whelm that faxriZto belongs; while /3«~™ belongs # to 
that other class which is represented by plunge, dive, sink, 
dip, but specifically agrees with dip in bringing its object 
out of the element into which it has briefly- and super- 
ficially introduced it. 

MEANING MOKE FULLY STATED. 

Having exemplified the important point by which words 
demanding a condition to be secured, and a definite act 
to be performed, are distinguished from each other; and 
placed the word in question in the former class ; I now 
proceed to unfold its meaning more fully. 

1. The following points are essential to a proper under- 
standing of the meaning of ^mzxi^m. (1.) Its import is in 
nowise governed by, or dependent upon, any form of act. 
(*2.) Its import is vitally dependent upon, and governed by, 
the idea of intusposition within a closely investing element. 
(3.) Its import is as vitally connected with a continuance 
within the element for an indefinitely protracted period 
of time. It can never be used to express a mere super- 
ficial entrance and a designedly momentary continuance. 
This would wholly change its character, removing it from 
its own proper sphere, and make it a usurper of that of 

fidizrai. 

It is proper, here, in view of the distinction made and 
the importance attached to the difference between condi- 
tion and act, to recall the language of Gale on this point: 
" The word, perhaps, does not so necessarily express the 
action of putting under water, as in general a thing's 
being in that condition, no matter how it comes so, whether 
it is put into the water or the water comes over it." 

Dr. Carson, as we have seen, does, very earnestly, reject 
this statement as inconsistent with Baptist sentiments. Dr. 



MEANING MORE FULLY STATED. 127 

• 

Conant, however, seems to agree, substantially, with Gale, 
when he says, that it is not in their peculiarity that im- 
merse, or immcrge, or submerge, or dip, or plunge, or 
bathe, or whelm, represents fia-r^w, but by reason of some 
" common ground element," which can only be condition. 

On the statement of Gale, Dr. Ilalley remarks: "Had 
he said 'coming into that condition' instead of i being in 
that condition,' he would have exactly expressed our mean- 
ing." 

Prof. Wilson says: "Dr. Gale rowed hard to bring 
modal exclusivencss to land; but finding it a troublesome 
passenger, amid the storm of theological controversy, he 
adopted the more prudent course of throwing it over- 
board." He adds: "Our general statement is, that the 
verb panriZw, unlike fid-rco in its primary sense, is not tied 
to any exclusive mode, but embraces a wider range, and 
admits of greater latitude of signification. Let the bap- 
tizing element encompass its object, and in the case of 
liquids, whether this relative state has been produced by 
immersion or by affusion, or by overwhelming, or in any 
other mode, Greek usage recognizes it as valid baptism." 

Such testimonies give emphasis to the position assumed 
as fundamental to the interpretation of this word, and 
challenge for it a favorable consideration. All idea that a 
definite act is demanded by the primary, literal use, and 
all idea that the metaphorical or secondary use is in any- 
wise based on such act, must be abandoned. 

2. The idea of intuspositioii — inncss — necessarily carries 
with it that of completeness. An object baptized is com- 
pletely invested by the baptizing element, whatever it may 
be. In some cases (much the fewer, however, in number), 
the thought may rest here. When a stone, a pole, the sea 
shore, is said to be baptized, the nature of the object natu- 
rally arrests the conception, and bounds it with the simple 
investiture. 

In most cases the baptism of an object carries with it 
more than the complete intuspositioii. Comparatively few 
objects can be wholly enveloped by a fluid, semi-fluid, or 



128 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

other substance, without experiencing a very special and 
very thorough influence as consequent upon such position. 
Place a " ship" in such position, and it perishes ; place a 
"bag of salt" in such position, and it dissolves; place a 
human being in such position, and he drowns. 

It is obvious that influence, of the most thorough char- 
acter, is inseparable from the idea of baptism, in most 
cases which are physical in their nature. 

Controlling influence being established as the ordinary 
attendant upon such envelopment; and such influence, in 
one form or another, being developed every day in the out- 
working of life, where there is no physical envelopment, 
it follows, rationally, if not necessarily, that the exigencies 
of language would lay hold of the term with whose phys- 
ical use such idea was associated, and apply it, indiffer- 
ently, to all cases where controlling influence was opera- 
tive, wholly regardless of the absence of a physically 
investing element, the original form and means whereby 
such influence was developed. It is purely gratuitous to 
say that this must always be done by formal figure, or that 
there must be an imaginary, shadowy something moulded 
after the original style of encompassing waters to serve as 
a substitute for it, when not actually present. It is abun- 
dantly sufficient to recognize the original source and 
ground of the usage, and then freely and directly to em- 
ploy the term as expressive of controlling influence, how- 
ever, and by whatsoever, exerted. 

But we may go, we must go to meet the facts of the case, 
yet one step farther. When a word of a general character 
has been employed very often, and through a long time, 
to express a controlling influence of a particular kind, it 
may come to have a specific meaning characterized by 
such special influence. Drowning is the result of the in- 
fluence of encompassing waters fully exerted upon a living 
man; to express such envelopment pamtZto was employed; 
the cases for such application would be frequently occur- 
ring, and would be perpetuated from generation to gen- 
eration; it would, therefore, necessarily follow that this 



REPRESENTATIVE WORD. 129 

word, sooner or later, would be understood as expressing 
not merely the fact of envelopment, but, directly, the con- 
dition resultant from it, namely, the drowning. 

By a similar process — mutatis mutandis, — it might come to 
express, directly, the peculiarity of influence exerted by in- 
toxicating liquors when drank to excess, viz., to make drunk. 

3. These things being so, there is an absolute barrier to 
any connection ever being established between /?«*«'£> and 
dip. Neither in primary, nor in secondary use, can these 
words ever come in contact. And, indeed, as a matter of 
fact, no two words in the Greek language are kept more 
distinctly and uniformly separate in their usage than are 

$a.TZTi%u) and paTzrw. 

KEPKESENTATIVE WOKD. 

It is necessary not only that the meaning of a word 
should be described, but that such description should be 
embodied in some representative word. 

It has been already seen that Baptist writers have en- 
tirely failed to furnish us with such a word. The failure, 
however, has not been because no attempt was made to 
meet the demand. Now, one word has been announced 
as having the precise form and force required; and, then, 
another word, essentially differing in form and force, has 
been declared to be just what was demanded; and yet, 
again, a third word has been brought forward, radically 
differing from both of these, as, unquestionably, the right 
one. Such failure, so manifest and so often repeated, 
constrains us to doubt, not the scholarship (Greek or Eng- 
lish) of these writers, but the existence of any word in the 
English language which fully represents the broad and 
varied usage of the Greek word. This we shall consider, 
until better informed, to be incontrovertible truth. 

Take up what word you will, in use with us, and employ 
it as the substitute for the Greek word, and you will very 
soon tind it running out. Try a second, and it, speedily, 
meets the same fate. Try a third, and it has no better 
issue. 

9 



130 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

Under these circumstances it becomes a necessary ques- 
tion — whether we shall adopt several words to express the 
modifications of meaning, or whether we shall adopt some 
one word, as near. as may be to the fundamental idea of 
the original, and carry it throughout the entire range of 
Greek usage without regard to the existence, or otherwise, 
of a corresponding English usage. Both these courses 
of procedure present advantages. 

The use of one word, invariably, for the translation of 
the same word, commends itself, especially in controversy, 
as fit and obligatory, uuless there be imperative reasons to 
the contrary. The English reader sees, by this course, 
much more satisfactorily what is Greek usage, and, also, 
in what measure, and at what points, it becomes divergent 
from English usage. He is, also, at liberty to substitute, 
at his own option, other words, according as he feels the 
necessity, without the bewildering, and oftentimes mis- 
leading, translations of the controversialist. 

On the other hand, failing to find one word which moves 
on, pari passu, with fta-xTi'M, throughout its entire range, 
if we can find a word which naturally, or by definition, 
accurately expresses one form of usage, while another 
word may be found which accomplishes the same for an- 
other form of usage, there would be an advantage in so 
doing for many readers who might feel embarrassed in 
making a satisfactory selection for themselves. 

If we could find a word which was not invested with 
embarrassing circumstances, arising out of its already 
established usage, we should be placed on vantage ground. 
To find such word is difficult, if not impracticable. 

To drown, is in some respects quite a favorable repre- 
sentative word. 

It is so, because: 1. It expresses the entire envelopment 
of an object by a fluid element. 2. It expresses the in- 
fluence exerted over an object by such envelopment. This 
is its special use. 3. It expresses influence where there is 
no enveloping element. 4. It expresses, specifically, the 
influence of intoxicating liquors when drank to great ex- 



REPRESENTATIVE WORD. 131 

cess. 5. It has no dependence on any form of act. 6. It 
expresses no limitation as to the continuance of the state 
induced. 

In these particulars are embraced all the elements which 
enter into the usage of jSa-z^aj ; but in translating " to 
drown," we should, assuredly be embarrassed by the 
greatly predominant meaning — to destroy life by suffoca- 
tion under water. Nevertheless it is of importance to 
state, distinctly, that this Greek w r ord is fairly, though 
inadequately, represented by drown. 

To whelm presents some special claim for consideration. 

1. It envelops. 2. It influences b}- envelopment. 3. It 
influences without envelopment. 4. It is not limited by 
form of act. 5. It is without limit of time. 

Its special claim lies in its usage under the third par- 
ticular. Whelm (and overwhelm, the same word empha- 
sized) has a secondary usage giving expression to fully 
developed and controlling influence, which, by its nature 
and breadth, represents the Greek word better, perhaps, 
in its like usage, than any other English word. Its de- 
ficiency consists in the predominant thought of the liquid 
sweeping over its object with force. Such specialty is not 
in the Greek word. This, however, largely, if not wholly, 
disappears in secondary use, leaving only the grand idea 
of controlling influence. 

To merse has just and strong representative claims within 
certain limits. 

" Im-merse" is peremptorily excluded : 1. Because com- 
pounded with a preposition, which the original word is not, 
and for which there is no conceivable necessity. 2. Be- 
cause im-merse is the proper translation of e^-pa-rc'to, and 
which should (if im-merse is the translation of the uncom- 
pounded word) be translated /w,-?'mmerse. 3. Because the 
preposition has been abused and misinterpreted, as indica- 
tive of movement, while its force was merely local, as a 
proper examination, both of Latin and English usage, will 
fully establish. 

In all cases where the simple envelopment of the object, 



132 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

only, is concerned, no word, probably, is more unexcep- 
tionable than merse. 

1. This word is of common use in cases where an object 
is placed in a fluid, semi-fluid, or any easily penetrable ma- 
terial. 2. It depends upon no form of act. 3. It is with- 
out limit of duration. 

But where the design is to express influence, whether 
as a consequence of envelopment, or controlling influence 
without envelopment, this word, markedly, fails. Such 
usage is a leading feature in the Greek word, claiming 
special attention, and demanding expression. 

The secondary use of merse (or immerse) does not cor- 
respond with that of ftartTgw. "I am mersed in study," 
and " I am baptized by study," are phrases expressive of 
very different ideas. The former expresses thorough intel- 
lectual engagedness ; the latter expresses thorough intellectual 
prostration. 

Steep approaches toward the idea, yet falls essentially 
short of it. To be steeped in any influence is to be thor- 
oughly interpenetrated by it, yet so that the influence 
remains under our control; to be baptized by any in- 
fluence, is for us to be thoroughly under its control. 

Whelm expresses this additional idea, and it is the only 
word, that I think of, which does do so in so satisfactory 
a manner. 

In the first examination of this question, "merse" was 
carried through every case of the usage of the Greek 
word ; but in doing so the necessity arises for the origina- 
tion of usage unknown to our language. This is embar- 
rassing. Unity of word and clearness of thought cannot 
be combined. It may be better (though we cannot but 
greatly regret the necessity) to sacrifice verbal unity to a 
clear statement of the thought. 

Merse (immerse) fails to represent the Greek word in 
another particular, namely, its absolute use. 

When it is said of a man, absolutely, that he was "bap- 
tized," meaning that he was drowned, we have no corre- 
sponding use of mersed (immersed). When it is said, in 



REPRESENTATIVE WORD. 133 

like absolute use, he was " baptized," meaning stupefied by 
an opiate; or "baptized," bewildered by questions; or "bap- 
tized," intoxicated; or " baptized," purified; we have no 
like usage of merse (immerse). 

The fitness of merse (immerse) to represent fia-riZw is 
good within certain limits; but those limits are decidedly 
restricted, unless the mind be educated to the interpreta- 
tion of unfamiliar combinations. 

To inn is a word of our language, although of infrequent 
and restricted use. Its radical idea of inness affords the 
essential idea requisite to develop a usage which would 
faithfully represent this Greek word. The usage would 
have to be formed out of this radical idea, for it has no 
present existence; but this is, measurably, true of every 
other word. The advantage would be, that we should not 
have to unlearn old and unsuitable ideas. In some cases, 
this word (because so much unused) would bring with it 
less clog to embarrass the thought than any other, more 
familiar, word. 

The idea of inness, and of inness expressive of influence, 
is one of greatest familiarity to our language. If this 
thought were embodied in the verb to inn, and applied as 
the sole representative of the Greek word throughout the 
entire range of its usage, it would be as little liable to 
exception as any other one word, while it would have, in 
some cases, special advantage. 

I make this suggestion not with any design to adopt it 
as a translation, but that it may serve, as a truth laid up, 
to get rid of some of the false notions which have gathered 
around this debated word, by reason of the use of a certain 
set of terms as representative words. 

To steep. — Steep and dip, in their relation to each other, 
and in their distinctive usage, illustrate, very forcibly, the 
two Greek words. Like them, steep and dip come from 
the same root; and, like them, each has a deeply marked 
individuality. Dip represents /Sa^™, steep represents §<m- 
ti^oj. Steep expresses no definite act; it does express en- 
velopment by a fluid; envelopment, for the sake of influ- 



134 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

ence; pervading influence without envelopment; and has 
no limitation of time. Dip and steep present strong claims 
to a front place as the English representatives of /Scot™ and 
paxrCCu). If, however, we had a verb to deep, then, to dip 
and to deep would exhibit the fundamentally distinguish- 
ing characteristic, and could well serve as duplicates of 
these foreign words. 

To baptize. — After a thoughtful consideration of every, 
apparently, appropriate word, I am induced to believe that 
it would be well to employ baptize to represent the second- 
ary use, defining it as expressing controlling influence; the 
particular nature of the influence being determined by the 
specialty of the case. We would be less embarrassed, in 
the use of this word, with previous and irrelevant con- 
ceptions, and the mind would be left more untrammelled 
in its effort to extract the thought presented. 

After all, however, has been said as to the advantages 
and disadvantages in the use of particular words, there 
ma} 7 be controversial considerations which will outweigh 
all others, and determine it to be best to use a single word, 
to represent the single Greek word, throughout the whole 
extent and under all the modifications of its meaning. 
The best word, probably, all things considered, is Merse. 
The statements already made will show that this word 
is not without its imperfections, while they may help to 
relieve them. Nor is it without advantage that the word, 
in this uncompounded form, has no common use. We 
shall find, on this account, greater facility in associating 
with it any modification of thought, desirable, above what 
would be the case with zm-merse. 

By such use of this word our Baptist friends will be 
deprived of all possible ground of complaint, while we 
shall show our unbounded confidence that the sentiment 
of passages adduced will be sufliciently clear and power- 
ful to correct, and to control, any water tendencies which 
may pertain to the word, from more familiar usage, in that 
direction. 



DEFINITION. 135 



DEFINITION. 

Defining — to merse, to drown, to whelm, to steep, to inn, 
in primary use, as causative of the condition of an object 
within a closely investing element, without any limitation 
as to the character of the act inducing such envelopment, 
and without any limitation as to the time of its continu- 
ance : 

And defining — to merse, to ichelm, to steep, to baptize, in 
secondary use, as causative of a condition induced by a 
controlling influence unlimited as to source, form, or du- 
ration : 

I would define paxriZu) to mean, primarily, 

1. To ixtuspose: to merse, to drown, to whelm, to steep 
to inn; and, by appropriation, to suffocate within a fluid 
(to drown). 

2. To influence controllingly: to merse, to whelm, 
to steep, to inn, to baptize; and, by appropriation, to 
intoxicate. 

In this secondary use, the word, or an organic phrase, 
or the word as embodying such phrase, may be translated 
with the utmost fidelity — to stupefy, to bewilder, to pollute, to 
purify, &c, &c. 

Each of these words expresses a condition induced by 
some controlling influence. The nature of the influence is 
a matter of as absolute indifference as is the means and 
mode by which it is produced. One drop of prussic acid 
is as thoroughly competent to effect a baptism, secondary, 
(perhaps the more common form of baptism expressed by 
the Greeks), as is an ocean to effect a baptism, primary. 

The meaning thus assigned to pcacrgw must be sustained 
by an appeal to the facts of usage. 

Every passage of what may be termed Classical Greek 
(liberally interpreted), which I have met with, either as 
the fruit of my own direct examination, or that of others, 
has been adduced. The period embraced within these 
quotations is about a thousand years. There will, there- 



136 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

fore, be the fullest opportunity for the asus loquendi to give 
its authoritative utterance. 

If any one, after seeing the usage of the two Greek words 
side by side, can hesitate to acknowledge that they are 
radically different in meaning, as radically different in 
reference to the act of dipping as in reference to effecting 
a dyed condition, I shall be greatly surprised. 

If the conclusion reached should meet with general as- 
sent, then the bands by which dipping and baptizing have 
been so long bound together must be pronounced to be 
unlawful, and proclamation made that there are insur- 
mountable impediments which forever forbid that these 
" twain should be made one." 

What farther bearing this meaning, assigned to ftaTtri^u), 
has upon Christian baptism, will be seen when that subject 
shall come before us for consideration. It will not, at pres- 
ent, be introduced into the discussion. 



MEANING AND USAGE. 137 



BAI1TQ. 
ITS MEANING AND USAGE. 

It will facilitate our ultimate purpose to consider first, 
the usage of pd-zTo*, and other words whose meanings are 
designed to elucidate, by agreement or disagreement, the 
meaning of iSa-z^w. 

It has been confidently affirmed that fid-no has but the 
two meanings to dip and to dye. Usage will show that this 
latter position is as untenable as the earlier one which 
denied that it hadjnore than one meaning — to dip. But it 
is unnecessary, here, to particularize; the quotations will 
speak for themselves. 

We have a right, however, to note all such errors, as 
justly enfeebling our faith in other conclusions which we 
are called upon to accept. The commission of frequent, 
and manifest errors, should induce some hesitancy in 
affirming that "it is not so much evidence that is wanted 
as Christian honesty" to cause the acceptance of such 
positions as are, still, zealously pressed by our Baptist 
brethren. 

To dip has been placed first in order among the mean- 
ings of j3d-raj; but whether dip or dye be regarded as the 
primary meaning, the meaning is dip and not plunge, or 
sink, or any other word whose meaning characteristically 
differs from dip. By " dip" is meant a downward move- 
ment, without violence, passing out of one medium into 
another, to a limited extent, and returning without delay. 
Plunge differs essentially from this word in that it demands 
rapidity and force of movement; and, more especially, in 
that it makes no demand for a return. In critical, or con- 
troversial writing no word can, fairly, be substituted for 
dip, which has characteristics alien from and contradictory 
to its nature. I know of no instance, where pdimu is used 
to put an object into a fluid to remain there permanently, 



138 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

or for an unlimited time. Nor do I know of any instance, 
where this word is used to draw up anything out of a 
liquid which it had not first put into it. 

Dr. Carson gives more than fifty quotations from Hip- 
pocrates, in which, he says, " there can be no doubt but 
we shall find the characteristic meaning of Bapto." In 
all these cases there is the double movement of in trance 
and outrance. Whether this twofold movement be the 
result of the explicit demand of the word, or consequen- 
tial on that which is immediately expressed, the result is 
the same ; both find place in the " characteristic*' use of 
the word. 

To dye is now acknowledged to be a secondary meaning 
without any, necessary, dependence upon dipping. This 
doctrine was long and strenuously opposed by Baptist 
writers, who contended, then, that fid-ru) had but one 
meaning, as, now, they contend that £ajrr«Ca> has but one 
meaning ; and that dyeing was a mere appendage to dip- 
ping, and an accident consequent upon a dipping into a 
coloring element. This position is, at length, thoroughly 
abandoned, and the admission made that dyeing by sprink- 
ling is as orthodox as dyeing by dipping. In other words, 
it is now, however slowly, yet at last unreservedly admit- 
ted, that while pd*™ to dip expresses a sharply defined act; 
fid-xTo) to dye expresses no such act; but drops all demand for 
any form of act, and makes requisition only for a condition or 
quality of color, satisfied with any act which will meet this 
requirement. This being true; it is obvious that the differ- 
ence between dip and dye, and dip and plunge, is not a 
difference of measure and form, but a difference of nature. 
Dip and plunge express forms of act to be done; dye ex- 
presses a condition or quality to be secured. Thus we 
secure a stepping-stone toward that truth which we would 
establish; to wit, that fiaxriZa), unlike fidx™ to dip, but like 
fidTTTw to dye, does express not a form of act, but a condition — 
condition of intusposition, primarily, and condition of 
controlling influence, secondarily. Bdizrw, in one of its 
aspects, demands a movement which carries its object, 



MEANING ESTABLISHED BY USAGE. 139 

momentarily, within a fluid element; and in another of 
its aspects, demands a condition which is met by flowing, 
pouring, or sprinkling: paxrRZa, in one of its aspects, de- 
mands a condition which may be effected by flowing, 
pouring, or sprinkling; and in another of its aspects, de- 
mands a condition which may be effected by anything, in 
any way, which is competent to exercise a controlling in- 
fluence over its object. 

The two leading meanings, to dip, to dye, have, severally, 
modifications in usage which, as they shall be developed, 
will show that the refusal to accept of any farther modi- 
fication, in the meaning of this Greek word, is not well 
grounded. 



MEANING ESTABLISHED BY USAGE. 
PRIMARY — TO DIP. 

Zrgpavov efc fiupov jSd^a^. JElian, lib. xiv, cap. 30 
Dipping the crown into ointment. 

'Evi^oupev el~ rov xrjpdv abz?^ rib xode. Aristophanes, Nubes, i, 2. 
Dipped its feet into the wax. 

T6$ £fjL t 3d<pa> lafiibv. Aristophanes, Peace, 960. 
I will dip — in, the torch, having taken it. 

El elq xypdy ftdcpsti nz. Aristotle, On the Soul, iii, 12. 
If any one should dip into wax. 

Bdipai yap Ssl, xat tot avat iXxvtrat. Aristotle, Mech. Quest, c. 29. 
It is necessary to dip and then to draw up. 

'Eq udara xpwffffdv ifiatpe. Constantine, Epigr. of Hermolaus. 
He dipped a vessel into water. 

Eh T«? itXeupas fid<J>a<; tt^ atyftrjv. Dionys. Hallic. Ant. Rom. lib. v. 
Dipping the spear into the breast. 

Ka\ vojk ydp epatfev, Euripides, Orestes, 705. 

If a vessel has dipped. 



140 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

Bd([>aq, k'vsyxe dsupo itovriaq dkog. Euripides, Hecuba, 608. 
Dipping it, bring hither of the salt sea. 

Bdrrretv iari to %dka\) ti eiq udcop. Scholium, Hecuba, 608. 

To dip is to let something down into water or some other fluid. 

Obde elq xepippavTrjptov ipfid-rstv. Iamblichus, Vlt. Pythag. C. 18. 
Nor to dip — into the periranterium. 

KpiDGGoiaw ddvdoiai §d(pa\>re<; ydvoq. Lycophron, Cassandra, 1365. 
Dipping pleasure with foreign vessels. 

Elq GTildyyy tyidvyq abro^stp (3d<pst k"i<poq. Lycophron, 1121. 

Will dip the sword into the viper's bowels. 

To. xdhzidi x-qpia fid<pat. Theocritus, Idyl v, 127. 
Dip honey with a pitcher. 



TO WET. 

Bd(paq xottyv ttjv X ei P a j npoqpaivei ttjv dixa<TTrjptav. Suidas, de Sierocle. 
Wetting the hollow of his hand he sprinkles the judgment seat. 



TO MOISTEN. 

QXiftopevoq de fidnrzi xat dvOt'et ttjv /elpa. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. V, 15. 
Being pressed it moistens and colors the hand. 

Tb j3d(J>ac, dt7 t vai xlxlyxev 6 xoitjttjz. Plutarch, Sympos. Prob. 8, 6. 
Bd(pat, the poet has called to moisten. 

TO WASH. 

Ilorapolo k^dcparo . . . wpouq kx xscpalr^. AratUS, 220. 
Washed head and shoulders of the river. 

"AviysAoq, fidnroi pooo iffxsptoio. AratUS, 858. 
Cloudless, washes of the western flood. 

v E(3a<p£ iwurdv fids bcl rdv r.orapov. Herodotus, Euterpe, 47. 
Washed himself, going upon the river. 



MEANING ESTABLISHED BY USAGE. 141 



BdxToufft Osp/xui. Aristophanes, Eccles. 216. 
They wash with warm water. 



SECONDARY — TO DYE. 

BdxTouav "A<ppodcT^ tov ~£~Xov. Achil. Tat. II, 87. 
They dye the robe of Venus. 

To (fdpriaxov u> fid-rsrac. Acllil. Tat. II, 89. 
The drug with which it is dyed. 

'Eftdxrsro d'alrxazt Xtpvq. ^Esopi, Phry. Fab. Batr. 218. 
The lake was dyed with blood. 

°lm /irj <T£ j3d(^(o ftdn/ia Zapdiaw.ov. Aristophanes, Achar. I, 1 L2. 
Lest I dye you a Sardinian dye. 

"Opvtz iSa-zoq. Aristophanes, Aves, 526. 
A dyed bird. 

Ka\ zd drr' adrrjq fta-zopeva Ifidrca. Barker's Class. Bee. p. 418, 
And the garments which are dyed from it. 

Tdq rpiyaq, w Nixo)la, roiq ftdrzzs''; at liyoixrv;. Bentleii, Ep. Coll. 139. 
Some say that you dye your hair. 

Trj> xzipalry jSd-rs'.Zj yr t paq 8k ffw ou-ore ftd^scq. Bentleii T Epigr. Coll. 
Thou may'st dye thy head, thy old age thou canst not dye. 

Kdi <papfid<j<T£iv rd pdarreiv iXiyero. Eustathius ad II. x, 32. 
To drug was called to dye. 

'Execdav l-iard^ l/xdzia ftd-Tsrat. Hippocrates. 

When it drops upon the garments they are dyed. 

KaOd-zp ol (Sayzlq -poexxaOacpovTsq. IamblichuS Vlt. Pyth. Xvii. 
As dyers cleanse beforehand. 

"Ept'.q 5z fta<pTJ ypaxnq, xaraypwaiq. JullUS Pollux, vii, 30. 
You will call i3a<pT) color, paint. 

Ka\ fidfoftai. Menander, Frag. 2, Anger. 
And I will dye. 



142 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

'Eav r^ T.'c alia ypmriara ftdzT7j idv re xai raora. Plato, de Repub. 

iv, 429. 
"Whether one dye other colors, or whether these. 



TO STAIN. 

v Efta(paq syyoc eu ?:pdq "Apystcov arpazw. Sophocles, Ajax, 95. 
Is it well that thou hast stained thy sword with the army 
of the Greeks? 

TO SMEAR, 

Audita*, xou (prjvt^cuv, xai (3a.-z6p.evoq ftazpayetotc. Aristoph. JSquiteS, 

523. 
Playing the Audoc and the $qy } and smeared with frog-colored 

washes. 

TO GILD. 

Km Tzvnrp ftd<pa<:, xIougloz igeydvyq. Jacob's Anthol. iii ; 145. 
Having gilded poverty thou hast appeared rich. 



TO TEMPER. 

XaX-Aou fta<pds. JEschylus, Agam. 612. 
Temperers of brass ? 

Ba<pr^ d<pii»at. Aristotle, Pol. 7, 14. 
To lose temper. 

Eb udazt <l>uyp<p fid-zy .... ipappdcGiov. Home?', OdyS, IX, 392. 
Working .... tempers with cold water. 

Bacpr Gifypoq &q. Sophocles, Ajax, 651. 
As iron by tempering. 

Q^lwzxai fizfiappboz o-b ttafou. Scholium, Ajax.'6Q3. 
Tempered by oil it is softened. 



MEANING ESTABLISHED BY USAGE. 143 



TO IMBUE. 

Bd-Tzzat yap v~b twv (pa^zaGtwv ij <J'u%tj, ftd-re ouv abrry; ttj <tuv£^£17j 

rajw toioutwv, (pavzaaiwv. Antoninus M. v, 17. 
The soul is imbued by the thoughts, imbue it, therefore, by 

the habitude of such thoughts. 

Atxawouvri ftefia/xfiivov e><; fidOoz. Antoninus 31. iii, 6. 
Imbued by integrity to the bottom. 

"Opa prj d^oxouffapwOfjS /j.yj fia<p7}<;. Antoninus M. vi, 25. 
Beware of Crcsarism, lest you be imbued by it. 

Mouaav tytdvata Tzpwroq eftat/'e x°^fi- Bentleii, Epig. Coll. p. 156. 
He first imbued the Muse with viperish gall. 

Xo/.rj $z?ja<iho>.~ o<pswv dia-oiq. Strabo, xvi, p. 1117. 
Arrows imbued with the gall of serpents. 

'AvaXdfa -d -dOoq zoo fiefta/ifM&ou. Epictetus, Arrian, xi, 9. 
Should adopt the character of one imbued. 



01 fid-rat. Eupolis. 
The Baptae. 



BAnTil— PRIMARY. 



TO DIP. 



All the quotations showing the primary, literal use, 
confirm what Aristotle says, that the act expressed is one 
which carries its object, superficially, into a fluid and 
brings it out. The act is, emphatically, one of limitations, 
— limitation of force, limitation of extent of entrance into 
the element, limitation of time of continuance within the 
element, and, by consequence, limitation of influence. It 
is, also, noticeable that the objects are limited in magni- 
tude, although there is no other necessity for this than the 
limitation of human strength, in its ordinary exercise, by 
\^hich objects are usually dipped. Euripides speaks of 



144 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

the dipping of a sailing vessel; but it is not the entire ves- 
sel that is dipped, but merely the rising and falling pro- 
duced by the wind. The case, more fully stated, is this: 
u Has a ship, with sheet hauled close, struck by the wind, 
dipped ? She will right again if the sheet be loosed." 

The following quotation illustrates the passage : " As 
the squadron rounded the buoy the wind was free and 
the sheets were eased off; the vessels righted at once." 
The dipping is not directly stated, but is involved in the 
"righting." Some have translated this passage — "if a 
vessel has sunk." There is no sanction here, or elsewhere, 
for translating fiaizrui to sink. It is never applied to vessels, 
or anything else, sunk; paxrga), exclusively, is used in con- 
nection with such facts. This case proves that a part, 
only, of an object may be dipped, although there be no 
express limitation in the statement. 

Carson objects to this (p. 21): "Grave doctors make 
themselves fools" by saying that the phrase, " they dipped 
the man in the river, does not necessarily imply that they 
dipped him all over." Euripides was not a " grave doc- 
tor," and so may escape the unenviable brand which the 
Doctor of Tubbermore applies so sovereignly to his fellow 
" doctors." The vessel is dipped (by a sudden blast) into 
the sea without being "dipped all over," and Euripides 
was, surely, no " fool" in his knowledge of Greek. Besides, 
Dr. Carson, and other " grave doctors," speak, daily, of 
" dipping men in the river," when they, in fact, dip but a 
part of the body (head and shoulders), and I never heard 
of any one calling them " fools" for such use of language, 
however much they may be judged liable to the charge 
of inconsistency in carrying theory into practice. 

The preposition employed in all these passages (where 
any is expressed) claims attention. 'Ei- is always em- 
ployed, with its appropriate case, and the verb in the 
active voice directly expressive of the act performed. This 
is the natural use of the word in its primary sense, and 
whenever otherwise used there is reason to believe that 
there is some modification in the meaning of the word. , 



MEANINGS GROWING OUT OF DIPPING INTO WATER. 145 

The use of fiam^m will be found to be in marked con- 
trast with this. It is used, infrequently, in the active voice 
with i:c, in its primary sense, because such is not the natu- 
ral grammatical construction of this class of words, al- 
though they may be so employed with a verb understood. 

MEANINGS GROWING OUT OF DIPPING INTO WATER. 

1. To Wet. — This is an unavoidable consequence of dip- 
ping anything into water; and it would be in perfect 
harmony with the laws of language to use the word, whose 
act produces* the effect, to express such effect when not 
produced by its form of act. It is difficult, if not impos- 
sible, to translate by dip in the passage from Suidas, and 
it seems to be a necessity to translate by wet. 

2. To Moisten. — In the quotation from Aristotle dip is out 
of all question, and dye seems to be as much so, in con- 
sequence of the use of " aaffi&t." Two words are not needed 
to express dyeing; while the moistening by the juice of the 
berry pressed is essential to dye, stain, or color the hand. 

We the more readily adopt this meaning, as Plutarch 
expressly says that the word is used in this sense. 

3. To Wash. — Aratus speaks of a crow washing itself 
" of the river." The phraseology indicates that dipping is 
not intended. The scholiast omits the limitation ("head 
and shoulders") in the text, and says, "washes itself" — 
fid-ze: Si (airnqv y zopvtxq — including the whole, while a part 
only is washed. 

In the second quotation from the same writer the form 
of the phraseology is similar, and is indicative of a similar 
use. The importance of the form of expression is obvious 
in the translation of Carson — "if the crow dips his head 
into the river." "Into" has no existence in the text, and 
whatever Carson may think, others will be likely to judge 
that " into the river" and " of the river" are phrases of 
very different value. 

10 



146 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

Herodotus. — The quotation from Herodotus is thus trans- 
lated by Carson : " The Egyptians consider the swine so 
polluted a beast, that if any one in passing touch a swine, 
he will go away, and dip himself with his very garments, 
going into the river." 

Unless the text of Dr. Carson differed from that before 
me, we have, here, another of those broad discrepancies 
so often found in the translations of this writer as compared 
with the original. There is nothing said about " going 
into the river;" the text is "going upon" (the bank of) 
"the river." If, however, it be assumed, as an unstated 
fact, that after having come upon the river, he, also, 
"went into the river" and then "dipped himself," we 
learn from Dr. Carson that, after all, the dipping of the 
head and shoulders may be accepted as the dipping of the 
man, "himself," into the river. 

The same writer tells us with some degree of exultation, 
" Here is a religious baptism, and it is by immersion." A3 
depicted by Carson, this Egyptian " baptism" into the 
Nile is a perfect model for those more modern " religious 
baptisms" with which he is familiar. " Going into the 
river," "with clothes on," dipping the head and shoulders; 
these are the necessary elements. If, now, Herodotus 
were Matthew, and Egypt were Palestine, and the Nile 
were Jordan, and last, but not least, if paitrm were /fo-T^w, 
and the facts were as the translator represents, then, to the 
narrative might be appended an unanswerable Q. e. d. 

But the equanimity with which this transaction is re- 
ferred to as a solution of the mode of baptism must be 
disturbed. It is not called a " baptism" by Herodotus, but 
by Dr. Carson, and with self-inconsistency, for elsewhere 
(p. 48) he says, that this word should never be used with 
bapto. Herodotus understood Greek too well to use any- 
thing else than ftd-ru), here, whether it means to dip or to 
wash, and we cannot allow Dr. Carson to correct, or to 
pervert, his language by transforming ftd-rio into /9«-r&. 
The fact is that this transaction, as represented by Carson, 
is fatal to the Baptist scheme. According to it, a true 



MEANINGS GROWING OUT OF DIPPING INTO WATER. 147 

Greek calls their ritual service a bapting; this we cheer- 
fully admit it to be; but this will not quite answer; so the 
attempt is made to convert it into a baptizing. The Egyp- 
tian bapting may be pleaded as a precedent for modern 
dipping, but it must be just as it is, with no surreptitious 
conversion of the transaction into a baptism. The more 
strongly this dipping is leaned upon for support, the more 
utterly is Christian baptism abandoned. Bd-no and /Sa-r^w 
are non-interchangeable terms. The Scriptures adopt the 
latter, and know nothing of Egyptian bapting. Herodo- 
tus is right in the use of language; dipping is bapting, 
and Carson must be satisfied with bapting or change his 
practice. 

The Doctor attempts, in vain, to bridge over the gulf be- 
tween these two words by saying : " The person dips him- 
self; therefore it is bapto to dip, and not baptizo to cause 
to dip." The attempted distinction has no real existence. 
When I dip my pen into the ink I cause it to dip just as 
much as when I dip the upper part of a man's body into 
the river. Besides, this reasoning is nullified by the writer 
himself when he speaks of Naaman, finding no embarrass- 
ment from the presence of /5a™&; but makes him, by this 
word, " dip himself," entirely oblivious of the necessity, 
arising from this word, that somebody else should be there 
" to cause him to dip." 

It remains, then, classically true, that " Bapting is dip- 
ping, and Dipping is bapting;" but this truth throws the 
rite of our friends entirely out of the range of Scripture 
phraseology. 

What this swine-polluted Egyptian did, whether he went 
into the river and dipped his head, or remained on the bank 
and washed, has some bearing on the meaning of fid--w, it 
has none on fja-ri*u>. It expounds the dipping of Baptists; 
it has no bearing on the baptism of the Scriptures. 

Aristophanes. — " They wash the wool with warm water." 
Carson admits that this translation " gives the sense, but 
not the exact version of the words; what is asserted is, that 
they dip, or immerse, or plunge the wool into warm water." 



148 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

I am sorry that I cannot say that his translation either 
" gives the sense or is an exact version of the words." 
Of what use is it for a controversialist to translate pd-rovm 
Osp/jioj, "they dip into warm water" ? And of what use are 
grammatical forms, if such as that before us is to be con- 
verted, by some prestidigitation, into another essentially dif- 
ferent ? The form and the nature of the case unite in 
sustaining the conclusion, that the dative is instrumental, 
and that there must be a corresponding modification in 
the use of the verb. 

Some things may be washed by dipping, but a greasy 
fleece of wool is not among the number; a dipping, there- 
fore, is not the thing that is here called for, but a washing. 
It is admitted that " Suidas and Phavorinus interpret bap- 
tousi by plunousi;" but "it argues shallow philosophy to 
suppose that on this account the words are perfectly synon- 
ymous." The " shallowness" may be found to be in Dr. 
Carson's examination of the case; but whether or no, I 
leave it to lovers of truth to determine, assured that, how- 
ever determined, the result bears more strongly on general 
truth than on the specific issue before us. 



BAnrn— SECOKDAKY. 
TO DYE. 

Dr. Gale, representing Baptist writers up to that time, 
says : " The Greeks apply the word to the dyer's art, but 
always so as to imply and refer only to its true, natural 
signification to mp." 

This position was tenaciously held for more than a hun- 
dred years, notwithstanding all the mass of evidence accu- 
mulated against it. At length Dr. Carson arose, and 
sharply rebuked his friends for attempting to advocate 
so untenable a position. He boldly affirmed that fid-no, 
" from signifying mere mode, came to denote dyeing in any 
manner. This serves to solve difficulties that have been 
very clumsily got over by some of the ablest writers on 



TO DYE. 149 

this side of the question. Hippocrates employs ^a'-rw to 
denote dyeing by dropping — 'When it drops upon the 
garments they are dyed' — this surely is not dyeing by 
dipping." 

This reasoning is presented by Dr. Carson as unanswer- 
able, and it has been accepted, from him, by Baptists, as 
truth, although rejected a thousand times when stated bj 
their opponents. And, yet, when identically the same 
argumentation is adduced to prove that fidirza* may mean 
to wet— Nebuchadnezzar being bapted by drops of dew — it 
is rejected as a mere nullity, and fid-rw can mean nothing 
else but dip! 

Gale's position in reference to ^i-rw, which Carson re- 
pudiates (with the Baptist world crying, w Well done!"), he 
most cordially adopts as true, in relation to /Sa-rrTw; " the 
Greeks apply this word to cases where there is no immer- 
sion in fact, but always so as to imply and refer only to its 
true, natural signification, to dip" And,, again, the Baptist 
world exclaims, "Well done!" 

It may be of but little avail for us to bring evidence, 
"clear as holy writ," in disproof of this position; but I 
suppose we must continue to do it until another Carson, 
wilful, but honest and trusted by his friends, shall arise 
and teach them that "from signifying intusposition, and 
complete influence from intusposition, it came to denote 
baptizing," i. c. influencing completely without intusposi- 
tion and in any manner. " This seems to solve difficulties 
that have been very clumsily got over by some of the 
ablest writers on this side of the question." And him 
they will hear. 

" Bcrpting by sprinkling" was once regarded as a very 
fair subject for the exercise of the powers of ridicule; but 
that time has passed, and, in order to cover the confessed 
error, the task is assumed of making doubly ridiculous 
"baptizing by sprinkling." Truth can wait; but she will 
not have to wait long before the confession will, once 
more, be made — "there are difficulties very clumsily got 
over by some of the ablest writers" who have ventured to 



150 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

indorse this Baptist position — " baptizing by sprinkling is 
an absurdity." 

Bd-TU) to dye has a far more practical and instructive rela- 
tion to pa-T%a), than has /Ja*™ to dip ; because the former 
meaning is not, like the latter, a demand for an act, but 
for an effect, and there is a consequent harmony in gram- 
matical forms, and, measurably, of thought branching out 
of it. This will be seen to be true by the facts of usage. 
As a dyed condition may be effected in almost endless 
variety of ways, even including the paradox, " dipping by 
sprinkling," so, a baptized condition may be effected in 
ways no less numberless, even including " the absurdity" 
baptizing by sprinkling. 

We might decline to use dye to express the modified 
meaning of fid-ru), and retain dip, throughout, as the Greeks 
retain /?a-rw. 

There would be a propriety in doing so; because, 1. It 
would perfectly reflect the Greek practice. 2. Because 
dip, in English, also, has the meaning to dye. 3. Because 
thrown on to the sentiment and the syntax, to learn the 
modification of the primary meaning, there would be some 
equalization of the case with that of iSa-T^u, when it is 
compelled to vindicate its claim to modified meaning under 
the uniform use of a single word through all its usage. 

But we will not insist on putting a similar burden on 
/5d-rw; but cheerfully assume the unequal task, believing 
that the word is able to vindicate its rights even under 
such unfavorable circumstances. 



" The lake was dyed with blood." 

It would be quite unnecessary to dwell upon any of these 
quotations, if the only purpose was to establish the mean- 
ing to dye; this has been thoroughly done, and is univer- 
sally accepted; but there are other reasons, connected with 
the grammatical structure, modified translation, varied 
agencies, the introduction of distinct words to express the 



TO DYE. 151 

form of action, as they bear upon and illustrate kindred 
peculiarities in the usage of fta-r&o, which make a rapid 
survey of particular passages desirable. 

The above passage from JEsop, attributed to Homer, is 
instructive by reason of the manner in which it has been 
treated in the earlier period of this controversy, as well 
as for the reasons prompting to the abandonment of the 
ground then taken. 

Dr. Gale says: "The literal sense is, the lake was dip- 
ped in blood. And the lake is represented, by hyperbole, 
as dipped in blood." 

Dr. Carson replies to this: "Never was there such a 
figure. The lake is not said to be dipped, or poured, or 
sprinkled, but dyed with blood. The expression is literal, 
and has not the smallest difficulty." 

It is desirable to note several particulars ruling in Dr. 
Carson's interpretation : 

1. The repudiation of Gale's view on the ground of ex- 
travagance in the figure. 

2. The rejection of all figure by the introduction of a 
secondary meaning. 

3. The denial that the act by which the dyeing takes 
place is expressed by fid-zco. " The blood was poured into 
the lake," but " fid-ru docs not, therefore, signify to pour." 

4. The rejection of the local dative and the substitution 
of the instrumental. 

5. The necessity for this as grounded in the meaning 
of the verb as modified. 

So long as Gale insisted on the act dip, he was com- 
pelled (whatever might be the amount of violence done to 
the construction, or whatever might be "the perversion 
of taste") to make the dative represent that in which the 
act took place, for "blood" could not be instrumental in 
a dipping; in like manner, when Carson rejected the act 
(dip) and took the condition (dye), he was shut up to the 
necessity of interpreting the dative as instrumental; for 
"blood" can dye while it cannot dip. 

6. The dative is made instrumental, notwithstanding 



152 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

that it represents a fluid element in which (its nature only 
considered) a dipping could readily take place. 

All these elements which enter into the rejection of 
Gale's interpretation (who in this matter does not stand as 
a simple individual, but as the representative of the entire 
Baptist body) will come into frequent play in the exposi- 
tion of other passages where Carson will be found attempt- 
ing to sustain a similar position in relation to PaurrgtO) with 
that of Gale to fid-ru, which he has so remorselessly over- 
turned. 

One more point in connection with this passage and we 
may leave it. 

" Bd-ro), from signifying mere mode, came to be applied 
to a certain operation usually performed in that mode. 
From signifying dip it came to signify to dye by dip- 
ping." And, according to this interpretation, and else- 
where, it came, by yet another step, to signify to dye without 
dipping; to dye in any manner. That is to say, the original 
peculiarity of the word, the name remaining the same, is 
entirely lost sight of: 1, to dip; 2, to dye by dipping; 3, to 
dye without dipping. Apply, now, this developing pro- 
cess to /9a7ft&a», and we have, 1. To intuspose within a fluid. 
2. To influence controllingly by intusposition within a 
fluid. 3. To influence controllingly without intusposition. 

In the first process /Sa-rw remains, in all its literal integ- 
rity; but dip is wholly eliminated from its signification. 
In the second process, /?«--<!> exhibits every letter in 
wonted position, while it has, bodily, come forth from 
intusposition in water or in anything else. 

However much it may be denied that this latter word 
has such development, in fact, it is beyond denial that 
such development may be (unless we are to go back to the 
antiquate.d interpretation of "the lake dipped, hyperboli- 
cally, in a frog's blood"), and if it may be, then, the cry 
of "absurdity" is absurd. 

What are the facts as to this development, we can better 
determine when they shall have passed before us. 



TO DYE. 153 

" The garments which are dyed from it are called byssina." 

The use of the genitive («-' auT^q) excludes all idea of 
dipping which might be forced upon the dative. Even 
Gale could not say, here, " the garments are dipped in it." 
Although the garments should have been dyed by dipping, 
still, the ,^-rw, in this construction, could have neither 
part nor lot in any such dipping. If this act should be 
desired to appear, and appear under the auspices of /?d^rw, 
this word as signifying to clip must be called into requisi- 
tion; as meaning to dye, in this passage, its power is ex- 
hausted, and the dipping must be supplied from some 
other quarter. 

~No word can have, at the same time, two meanings. 
No word can mean, in the same passage, both dip and dye. 



And I will dye." 



No regimen is expressed. "I, also, was once young; 
but I was not washed, then, five times a day; but now I 
am; nor had I, then, a fine mantle; but now I have; nor 
had I ointment ; but now I have; and I will dye ." 

To dye himself did not require that he should dye his 
whole person, but the hair and beard — " crines et barbam 
pingcbant" a commentator observes. On the process of 
dyeing a writer from India says: " On reaching the village 
I observed an aged man, the lower part of whose face was 
covered with bandages, beneath which stuck out the edges 
of green leaves besmeared with a black stuff. I inquired 
into the cause. The reply was that he had colored his 
beard, and that the bandage was worn until the color had 
well dried upon the hair. The coloring of the beard is a 
very usual custom." 

We, here, learn how absolutely dipping has disappeared 
from dyeing. The Christian missionary (J. II. Orbison) 
repeats what Nearchus said two thousand years ago — 
"the Indians dye their beards." 



154 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

The mode, as well as the custom, probably remains the 
same. 



" "When it drops upon the garments they are dyed." 

This statement goes beyond the others in the exclusion 
of dipping, in that while they expressed this by construc- 
tion and by sentiment, here, we are expressly furnished 
with a word {eruara^rj) expressing an act of an entirely dif- 
ferent character, by which the coloring material is brought 
in contact with the material to be dyed. Professor Wilson 
remarks : " The great critical value of this example con- 
sists in its stripping pdircu* completely of all claim to modal 
signification, by employing another term to denote the 
manner in which the dye was applied to the garments." 

We have, here, a favorable opportunity to indicate and 
make the attempt to correct, an 'error constantly outcrop- 
ping in this controversy. 

No Baptist would say that ftd-ra), in the phrase " to dye 
by dropping," expressed the act to drop; no such person 
should say that fia-xro in the phrase, " to dye by dipping," 
expressed the act to dip; and, yet, there is a constant iden- 
tification of j3a7TTi£a) with the act (whatever it may be) by 
which its demand is effected. 

It is possible that it may yet be confessed that it is quite 
as facile, and fully as legitimate, to baptize by sprinkling 
as to fiaTZTsiv by dropping; while in so doing, although the 
sprinkling effects a baptism as truly as that the dropping 
effects a bapting, yet pam-ci^ai has just as little responsibility 
for the expression of the act of sprinkling, as fid-xTa* has for 
giving expression to the act of dropping. 



" "Whether one dye other colors, or whether these." 

" No matter what dye they are dipped in," is the trans- 
lation of Gale and Carson, and is, surely, loose enough 
when used as an element for a critical judgment. It 



TO DYE. 155 

shows no regard to the syntax. The comment of Ilalley 
is just: "Whether the xP^t m was th° c b" e m ^-° which the 
wool was dipped, or the color imparted to it, is not the 
question. Be it which it may, it is the object of ftd-Ty; it 
has gained in the syntax the place of the material sub- 
jected to the process; and, therefore, pleads a law of lan- 
guage, that fid-rio in the passage does not, and cannot mean 
to dip, as the color cannot be clipped whatever may be 
done with the wool." 

" Colors dipped in Heaven" (Milton) is a parallel passage; 
where "dipped" necessarily means dyed. 



il Lest I dye you a Sardian dye." 

"Lest I dip you into a Sardinian dye." (Carson.) Such 
translation makes a recast of the syntax. And by so 
doing opens the way for the introduction of the primary 
meaning, in contradiction to the principle laid down by 
Buttman aud Kiihner — "when the verb is followed by the 
corresponding or kindred abstract substantive," — which 
would necessitate the translation, "dye a Sardian dye" or 
"dip a Sardian dip." 

The apology offered by Carson for his translation is: 
" As the reference is to the art of dyeing, so the expression 
must be suited to the usual mode of dyeing." Against 
such reasoning we protest. There is nothing whatever 
suggestive of " the usual mode of dyeing." Gale might 
as well say, " the lake was dipped in blood," because, " as 
the reference is to dyeing, so, the expression must be 
suited to the usual mode of dyeing." If Aristotle had a 
right to speak of dyeing by pressing a berry, and if Hip- 
pocrates had a right to speak of dyeing by drops falling, 
why is Aristophanes to be interdicted from speaking of 
dyeing by bruising? 

The tendency to fall back on dipping as here, and else- 
where, manifested needs to be corrected. 



156 CLASSIC BAPTISM, 



MODIFIED MEANINGS OUTGROWTHS OF DYE, 

TO STAIN. 
" Is it well that thou hast stained thy sword with the army of the Greeks?" 

" Ajax is represented by Sophocles as dipping his sword 
into the army of the Greeks;" so says Carson. Had any 
one else translated Ttpbq by into, none would have frowned 
upon the extravagance more indignantly than Dr. Carson. 
And such unwarranted translations to force in dip, by an 
opponent, would have brought down coals of fire on his 
head. 

As swords are not properly dyed with blood, but only 
stained, temporarily, this and other passages may be re- 
garded as exemplifying that modified idea, 

TO SMEAR. 

" Playing the AvJ'oi and playing the ¥»v, and smeared with frog-colored 

washes." 

" Magnes, an old comic poet of Athens, used the Lydian 
music, shaved his face, and smeared it over with tawny 
washes." (Gale and 1 Car son.) The Lydian music and shav- 
ing the face are introduced through some misconception. 
The passage alludes to two plays, as above designated. 
What, however, especially claims attention is the transla- 
tion of ftaTzrofjLsvoz by smear, with the remark: " Surely, here, 
it has no reference to its primary meaning. The face of 
the person was rubbed with the wash. By this example 
it could not be known that /J«^w ever signifies to dip." 

Why Dr. Carson should so unreservedly exclude dip, 
here, and insist upon its introduction in other passages, I 
do not know. " The allusion is to the art of dyeing," and 
why we are not compelled "to suit the expression to the 
most usual mode of dyeing" does not appear. We have, 
however, the translation — "pan™, to smear, to rub!" 



TO TEMPER. 157 

TO GILD. 
" Having gilded poverty thou hast appeared rich." 

The intimate relation between dyeing and gilding is 
obvious. In this passage, and in others, the thought ex- 
pressed seems to have passed into this modification. It is 
the case of a person who had become wealthy from a state 
of poverty. 

TO TEMPER. 
""Working .... tempers with cold water." 

It might, at first, be thought that "to temper," as a 
meaning of fid-raj, should be traced to dip rather than to 
dye; but the tempering of metals is regulated not by the 
act of dipping, in contradistinction from other modes of 
using water and oil, but by the color and dye of the metal ; 
I, therefore, trace this meaning to dyeing rather than to 
dipping. 

" The razor blade is tempered by heating it till a bright- 
ened part appears a straw color. The temper of penknives 
ought not to be higher than a straw color. Scissors are 
heated until they become of a purple color, which indicates 
their proper temper." — Ency. Amcr., Art. Cutlery. 

A friend, connected with one of the most highly esteemed 
edge-tool manufactories in the country, having come into 
my study, confirms the above statements. 

As the tempering of metals is not the performance of 
any modal act, but the inducing a peculiar condition of 
the metal, in the accomplishment of which water and oil 
are used as agencies; it follows that these fluids should be 
spoken of, in this connection, as instrumental means by 
which an end is to be secured, and not as elements into 
which an object is to be dipped. 

Carson says: "No one who has seen a horse shod will 
be at a loss to know the mode of the application of water 
in this instance. The immersion of the newly formed 



158 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

shoe in water, in order to harden the metal, is expressed 
by the word baptein." 

If j3d-T<o means to " harden the metal," to temper, noth- 
ing is more certain than that it neither does, nor can, ex- 
press the immersion of the metal; supposing that an im- 
mersion took place. 

The admission is made that the immersion is in order to 
harden; how facile the transition to express directly the 
effect — to temper. Such transition is most common; why 
not exemplified in this word ? 

As for the necessity of clipping, I have seen, in a black- 
smith's shop, in routine work, sprinkling, pouring, and 
dipping, all used within about ten minutes. 



" Tempered by oil it is softened." 

"Dip by oil" is an impossible translation; "dye by oil" is 
equally so; temper by oil is an every day-transaction. We 
seem to be shut up to this translation. 

Whatever plausibility there may be in a plea for dip- 
ping, when the dative, especially with a preposition, is 
used, there is none with the genitive. And if, in this case, 
the oil must be an instrumental means to an appropriate 
effect; then we are justified, in similar circumstances, in 
arguing that the dative is used instrumental ly. 

It is clear that if in this passage fidarm siguifies to temper, 
and the tempering should be by dipping into oil, yet, this 
fid-rco cannot express such dipping. Plain as this is, the 
contrary is so often assumed that the statement needs rep- 
etition. In any case the oil is spoken of as instrumental 
means. 

The tempering of metals by water, or by oil, results in 
characteristic differences. The result is not determined 
by the mode of application of these fluids, but by their 
peculiar qualities; hence the tempering is by water and by 
oil, whether it be in water, or in oil, or otherwise. 



TO IMBUE. 159 



TO IMBUE. 

11 The soul is imbued by the thoughts ; imbue it, therefore, by the 
habitude of such thoughts." 

" Imbue" is, perhaps, somewhat too strong to meet the 
requirements of the passage; and yet seems to be the word 
most suitable, on the whole, to this and kindred cases. 

To clip involves a very extravagant figuring by which, 
"the thoughts" receive personality, and seizing the soul 
dip it into the dye-tub ! Is this any less " perversion of 
taste" than "the lake" dipping? 

Gale gives an active form to the phraseology, " the 
thoughts dip or tincture the mind;" but he has excluded 
himself from the use of "tincture;" and, besides, this 
mode of translating and defining by " dip or tincture," 
" dip or immerse," is very unsatisfactory in a critical con- 
troversialist. 

Carson, as not unfrequently, exercises a sovereign license 
in the treatment of the passage. His substitution is, "the 
thoughts are tinctured bv the mind." A statement not 
calculated, by its profundity, to enhance in any very emi- 
nent degree the reputation of the imperial philosopher. 

Carson has not cut himself off from the use of dye, as 
has Gale; but has he any better right to employ "tinc- 
ture," here, than has his friend? 

Is " tincture" used as entirely synonymous with dye ? 
If so, why not use dye? Those who insist on single, bar- 
ren ideas, as running through the whole compass of a 
language, for long ages, should magnify their work by 
illustrating it in their practice. "Tincture" is as far from 
being used as the mere equivalent of dye as is smear, stain, 
color, and it is just because of its difference that Dr. Carson 
uses it, here, to the rejection of dye; we cannot allow such 
rigidity of definition and such looseness of translation. 

" Tincture" does not necessarily involve color, much less 
dye. A pharmaceutist informs me that some " tinctures" 
are colorless. A passage before me speaks of " water 



160 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

being tinctured by a little lemon-juice" Is this dyeing, or 
coloring, or the imparting of a colorless quality, — acidula- 
tionf So, in the passage under consideration, it is not the 
communication of color which is spoken of, but of quality, 
character. 

A habitude of thinking imparts a quality or character to 
the soul kindred to its own. 



" Imbued to the bottom with integrity." 

This is the summing up of the character of a man un- 
corrupted by pleasure; unbroken by misfortune; undis- 
turbed by envyings and jealousies; triumphant in self-con- 
trol — " imbued to the bottom with integrity" 

Dip is out of the question. Dye is as little in place. 
Integrity, justice, has no dyeing qualities any more than 
has pure water. Its glory is to be void of color; to exhibit 
a transparent pureness. 

Gale is, again, hampered and confused by his erroneous 
conception of the word; "dip'd, as it were, in and swal- 
lowed up with Justice; that is perfectly just : as we say, 
persons given up to their pleasures and vices, are immersed 
in or swallowed up with pleasures or wickedness." 

All this mixing up of things that differ, shows, 1. The 
error of limiting fid-no to dip. 2. The error of supposing 
that ftd-ra) can mean, at the same time, to clip, and, also, 
to swallow up and to immerse. And, 3. The error of con- 
founding the usage of fimcrw and ySa-rstw, now transferring 
dipping from the former to the latter, and now claiming, 
in return, mersing to be handed over from the latter to 
the former. 

No passage can be adduced in Greek where /fo'-rw, or, in 
English, where dip, signifies to be " immersed or swallowed 
up in pleasures, or wickedness," or in anything else. 

This explanation is not satisfactory to Carson while he 
offers nothing better. "I would not explain this, with Dr. 
Gale, ' dip'd, as it were, in or swallowed up with justice.' 



TO IMBUE. 161 

Justice is here represented as a coloring liquid, which 
imbues the person who is dipped in it. It communicates 
its qualities as in the operation of dyeing. The figure can 
receive no illustration from the circumstance that 'persons 
given up to their pleasures and vices are said to be immersed 
or swallowed up with pleasures or wickedness.' The last 
figure has a reference to the primary meaning of /Ja^rw, 
and points to the drowning effects of liquids; the former 
refers to the secondary meaning of the word, and has its 
resemblance in the coloring effects of a liquid dye. The 
virtuous man is to be dipped to be dyed more deeply with 
justice; the vicious man is drowned or ruined by his im- 
mersion." 

Dr. Carson speaks as though this honest man were to be 
dipped " to the bottom" of the dye-tub, instead of imbued 
to the bottom of his own soul. 

Such extravagant interpretations, manifestly groundless 
and framed to meet a case, will prepare us to appreciate 
others of like characteristics in connection with [ia-xi%m. 



"Beware of Csesarism, lest you be imbued by it." 

" Don't make the former emperors the pattern of your 
actions, lest you are infected or stained, or as it were dip- 
ped and dyed, namely, in mistakes and vices." — Gale. 

This road to dipping, through " infection," and "stain- 
ing," is rather roundabout, and hardly worth the trouble 
of passing over, inasmuch as, after thus reaching " dip- 
ping," the Doctor makes no tarrying, but passes on to 
u dyemg" 

This is another illustration of the inconsistency of Bap- 
tist writers in affirming that a word has but one meaning 
through Greek literature, and, then, availing themselves 
of the use of half a dozen different meanings whenever 
the exigency of the case requires it. 

Carson is never embarrassed by any difficulty; the knot 
which his principles cannot untie, is always resolved by 

11 



162 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

the edge of his knife. "When neither dipping nor dyeing 
will answer his purpose, he, very sovereignly, asking per- 
mission of none, adds to or takes from these agencies at 
will. " He uses the same word, also, when the clye injures 
what it colors. He cautions against bad example, lest you 
be infected." The notion of a dye injuring the fabric is that 
of Carson, not of Antoninus. To make injury to the fabric 
the basis of the interpretation, is to go entirely beyond 
the record. A dye capable of giving a good or bad color 
is one thing; a dj^eing material which benefits or injures, 
apart from the color, the object dyed, is quite another 
matter. 

" To infect" is a translation to which Dr. Carson has no 
right so long as he says that ^dr.rco has but two meanings, 
to dip, to dye; " to infect" is neither the one nor the other. 
As conjoined with Ccesarism, and regarded as receiving the 
contagion embodied in that word, it may be so translated. 
We not only have no objection to the principle, that a 
leading word may embody the sentiment of a phrase, and 
be treated as its representative; but we do most cordially 
accept of it, and shall insist upon it in cases where Dr. 
Carson may give but reluctant consent. Infection is a 
consequence of being imbued with Csesarism. There is 
no dyeing, but a transference of moral qualities. The 
idea of color is lost. 

The qualities of honor or dishonor, of truth or falsehood, 
of justice or injustice, of integrity or treachery, are as dis- 
tinguishable as the colors of the rainbow; but they are not 
colors ; and when jSa-™ is used to express the communica- 
tion of such qualities, language will no more consent to be 
chained to the dye-tub than will Samson yield his strength 
under the fettering influence of the "seven green wythes." 
Imbue expresses this modification of thought, and is equally 
applicable to any quality, good or bad. 



" Adopt the character of one imbued." 

The interpretation of this passage has caused no little 



TO IMBUE. 163 

embarrassment, and given rise to various translations and 
expositions. 

Professor Stuart quotes and comments thus: "Why 
dost thou call thyself a Stoic? Why dost thou deceive 
the multitude? Why dost thou, being a Jew, play the 
hypocrite with the Greek? Dost thou not see how any 
one is called a Jew, how a Syrian, how an Egyptian ? And 
when we see any one acting with both parties, we are wont 
to say: He is no Jew, but plays the hypocrite. But when 
he takes on him the state and feelings of one who is washed 
or baptized, and has attached himself to the sect, then he 
is in truth and is called a Jew. But we are r.apa^ar.riaxa^ 
transgressors as to our baptism, or falsely baptized, if we 
are like a Jew in pretence and something else in reality." 

"A great variety of opinions have been given on this 
passage. Some think that Arrian, here, refers to Chris- 
tians; but I see no good ground for such a supposition. 
De Wctte says : ' The passage is too obscure to gather any- 
thing certain from it.' 

" I can scarcely doubt that the writer refers to the Jew- 
ish ablutions. Paulus has endeavored to explain away the 
force of the whole passage. Bauer suggests that iSefia/inevou 
may refer to a Christian whom Arrian confounds with a~ 
Jew. On the whole I conclude this to be a difficult and 
obscure passage, in some respects." 

Dr. Halley (p. 346) thinks that reference is made to 
Christian baptism, and that Arrian, a heathen, has foiled 
to discriminate between fid-ru and ^aatri^ as does the New 
Testament. 

Gale presents this view: "After baptism, and the public 
profession, they were accounted, and really were, true Jews 
or rather Christians." 

There is no evidence that Arrian confounded either the 
distinction between ftd-rco and fta-r^w, or that between Jews 
and Christians. The supposition is violent and without 
any real necessity, so far a3 this passage is concerned. 

Attention has been directed, so far as I am aware, ex- 
clusively to the primary meaning of /5d-rw, or to a meaning 



164 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

(connecting it with baptism) of which it is not possessed. 
The cine to the interpretation lies, I think, in the second- 
ary meaning- and its modification. 

I would translate : " When one takes up the character 
(state or condition) of one imbued and convinced, then, he 
is in reality and in name a Jew." 

When the passage is considered alongside of those al- 
ready examined, can there be a reasonable doubt that this 
is the true interpretation? Usage sanctions the translation, 
and the passage is made luminous by its application. 

The notion of Jewish ablutions or of Christian bap- 
tism is quite inadmissible — 1, because of lack of evidence; 
and, 2, because they render no service when introduced. 
Ritual ablutions have no power to discriminate between 
real and assumed character ; they have no power to un- 
mask a hypocrite or to stamp honesty on profession; and 
this is the point made by Arrian. The " character of an 
imbued man' 7 is a positive and known quantity; the char- 
acter of a Jewishly washed, or Christianly baptized man, 
is a variable and unknown quantity. 

The interpretation is farther established by a reference 
to the language of Plato, Iamblichus, Theo. Smyrnseus, 
and others, who speak of the effect of a thorough training 
and instruction as a /9a^., a dye. Not hereby expressing a 
dipping (Gale), nor a coloring (Carson), but a distinguish- 
ing and abiding quality of the mind. 

The legitimacy of the use of jtera and /5«^ to denote 
the communication of some quality devoid of color needs 
no vindication as an abstract proposition; the evidence for 
the usage as a matter of fact, is before us. 



"That they may receive the laws in the best manner, as a dye." 

Plato, having described the great pains taken by dyers 
in order to secure a dye which would be unchangeable and 
ineradicable, applies this to the pains taken in training 
soldiers, which he says is in order to their receiving the 



TO IMBUE. 165 

laws or ordinances like a dye — which cannot be washed 
out by pleasure, grief, fear, &c. 

By this comparison, made between a military training 
and dyeing, Plato does not represent the soldier as either 
dipped or colored; but indicates the thorough preparation 
which is practised in both cases, and the similarity of re- 
sults, so far as inducing a permanent quality was con- 
cerned, namely, permanent color in the one case, and 
permanent, soldierly character in the other. 

To the same effect is the language of Iamblichus and 
Theo. Smyrnseus, when speaking of the effects of a well- 
conducted course of instruction. " As dyers cleansing 
beforehand." " Afterwards they receive instruction as a 
dye." Pupils in the school and soldiers in the gymnasium 
receive their training like a dye, being imbued with abid- 
ing qualities. 

How much wisdom would there be, on the basis of this 
allusion to a dye, to convert the school of Pythagoras and 
the gymnasium into places filled with dye-vats, where 
philosophers and drill sergeants should be busily engaged 
in dipping pupils and soldiers into their appropriate dye ? 

Extravagance like to this we shall often find in the in- 
terpretations of Baptist writers, rather than abandon the 
notion of a cast-iron inflexibility which they have attrib- 
uted to a Greek word. 

BAIITAI. 

This is the title of a play written by Eupolis, much the 
greater part of which has been lost. 
The word also occurs in Juvenal ii, 92. 

Talia secreta coluerunt Orgia tseda 
Cecropiam soliti Baptce lassare Cotytto. 
Ille supercilium madida fuligine tinctum. 

The annotator on this passage says : 

Baptce. *Aieo -co fid-zziv, lavare dicti: quia aqua calid& 



166 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

tingebantur illis Sacris Cotyttus initiati. Polit. Miscell. 
cap. 10. Porro, Baptse, titulus Comcedise Eupolidis Poetse, 
in qua viros Athenis ad imitationem foeminarum saltantes 
inducit, et psaltriam lassantes. Vet Schol. Cum autem 
Baptarum lasciviam Eupolis proscripssisset, ab illis in mare 
prsecipitatus et submersus fuisse dicitur. 

Feeling a special interest in this word as appropriated 
to designate a particular class of persons, and finding the 
materials out of which to form a conclusive judgment as 
to its precise usage quite limited; I ventured to ask infor- 
mation from others who might be supposed to know all 
that was knowable in the case, and whose scholarship gave 
them a right to speak so as to challenge the respectful at- 
tention of all. The information sought was grounded 
solely on the interest of those addressed in the solution 
of a purely classical question, and neither of the respond- 
ents had the remotest idea of the special inquiry in which 
I was engaged. While I do not feel that I have .any right, 
at all, to mention the names of the writers, yet I am sure 
that they would not object to the use of their statements 
as showing the position of a, confessedly, obscure question, 
namely : What is the precise import which should be at- 
tached to the 61 fidr-ai of Eupolis ? 

The following is one of the replies kindly returned to 
inquiries bearing on this question : 

" There is no doubt that the note on Juvenal ii, 92, refers 
to the same persons whom Eupolis calls Baptse. An old 
scholiast on that passage of Juvenal gives us valuable 
information concerning the play. 'Baptse ergo molles, 
quo titulo Eupolis comcediam scripsit ob quani ab Alci- 
biade,- quern imprimis perstrinxerat necatus est.' 

"The latter part of .this scholium appears in another 
shape, as edited by George Valla, in the 15th century, 
thus : ' Ob quam Alcibiades — necuit ipsum in mare praB- 
cipitando, dicans, " ut tu me in theatris madefecisti, nunc 
ego te in mare madefaciam." ' 

" A scholiast on the rhetorician or sophist Aristides (ed. 



TO IMBUE. 167 

Dindorf 3. 444), gives the following lines from some one, 
which must refer to the same event : 

"Where /Sa-rw, /8arre'C«»j answer to the madefacio of the 
scholiast on Juvenal. And this makes it altogether likely 
that ftd-zai meant clippers or washers rather than dyers. But 
the thing is uncertain, opinions differ, and I cannot give 
you absolute light as to the original sense of Baptae. 

" 1. Probably Eupolis had it for his object to satirize the 
secret orgies of Alcibiades and his vicious companions, by 
directly introducing on the stage the orgies of the Baptse, 
priests of Cotytto, who was then worshipped at Corinth, 
with which state Athens was then at war, and was not yet 
worshipped at Athens. 

" 2. Bd-zTjq can mean tinctor, dyer, as well as dipper or 
ivasher. Some learned men have supposed, that, as wash- 
ings or lustrations were common to all rites, it is not likely 
that a distinctive name would be derived from this custom 
in this case. But they fail of explaining the other signifi- 
cation from dyeing, and have nothing bat hypothesis to 
build on. 

" 3. I have called the Baptae priests of Cotytto; probably 
it would be safer to call them worshippers, 'sacricolae.' " 

Another, and wholly independent response, is as follows : 

"1. I remark that the Baptx of Eupolis is not extant; 
that a few lines, only, have been preserved, and that the 
fragments of Eupolis are to be found in Meineke's Frag- 
ments of the Greek Comedians. 

" 2. The fid-rat were effeminates w T ho in many respects 
imitated women. They were accustomed to paint, or stain 
their faces and eyelids. It is sufficiently well known that 
the play of Eupolis, called ( 0t Bd-rai, was written to expose 
and censure the licentiousness of such characters. 

" 3. The verb fid*™ is used freely in the sense of to dye, 
to stain, or to paint — so the Latin iingo. The application • 



168 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

of the derivative noun in the play of Eupolis is to the effem- 
inate practice above mentioned. 

" 4. Considering the character of Cotytto, there can be 
little doubt that such is also the meaning of the word as 
applied to her priests — her priests were fid-rat. 

" 5. The annotator on Juvenal is correct when he gives 
fid*™) as equivalent in this respect to tingo. And tingo is 
quite correctly used in respect to both bathing and stain- 
ing with color, and, like fid-ru, sometimes to paint." 

" In the note the Latin is modern, but the use of the 
word is classical. But the first part of the note concerns 
a different thing from the latter part, and they are not to 
be confounded. For the former of the two statements the 
authority quoted is Politian, an eminent scholar of the fif- 
teenth century. In this note the two things mentioned 
are brought together, most likely, from the fact that 
Juvenal satirically presents the Baptse as worshippers of 
Cotytto, with poetic if not with historical truth." 

Professor Ewing {Essay on Baptism, Glasgow) makes 
the following remark: 

" The fellows called fidxrat in Juvenal ii, 92, were not so 
called because they had been immersed in a dyer's vat 
(although they would have been well served had they been 
so treated), but because they were painted, from fan™ to 
paint, that is to lay on colors." 

Kobinson, Greek Arch., p. 317. u Kotdtjjs, Cotytto, her 
priests were called ftd-rac, from fidxTzw, to paint." 

It will be perceived that these eminent scholars, on the 
question, " To which branch of fid-Ta>, to dip or to dye, should 
fidxrat be traced?" are inclined to take different views; the 
one leaning to dip, the other to dye; yet neither of them 
disposed to insist upon the modal act of dipping, or the 
technical process of dyeing. 

It is certain that the word might be traced to that side 
of fid-zee which exhibits the use of an uncolored fluid, and 
in its use exhibit only a lustral washing, which might be 
administered as properly by sprinkling " warm water" as by 



TO IMBUE. 169 

dipping into cold water; or it might be traced to that side 
where we find a colored fluid, while the facts showed, 1, a 
bapting, a dyeing without any dipping, the modal act hav- 
ing passed into pressing, bruising, sprinkling, and thus 
entirely disappearing; or, 2, a bapting, a dyeing, icithout 
any color, but simply the communication of a quality or 
trait of character. 

If the statement of " dyeing without coloring" seems, 
on its face, to be paradoxical, yet, it is no more so than the 
earlier change — "dipping by sprinkling." And, on con- 
sideration, it will be adjudged to be as philosophical as it 
is paradoxical. 

To dye is to communicate a quality, the specific quality 
of color ; but there are qualities, devoid of color, which are 
communicable, and which from their nature are associated 
with color, spots, stains, the communication of which qual- 
ities, by the most facile extension of the word, might -be 
represented by dye. Dr. Gale says, " Stains on linen, or 
anything white, take from its beauty and clearness; so ill 
reports, &c, lessen and impair the purity of a man's repu- 
tation, and are to it what stains are to clean linen." Again, 
there are qualities without color, such as Justice, Integ- 
rity, Honesty, which by their pureness are not conceived 
of by any color, but by the absence of all color, absolute 
whiteness, which yet may, under the demands of language 
necessitating the extension of the meaning of words, be 
spoken of by the term dye; quality is communicated, but 
not of color. And the facts of usage, which have been 
already considered, show that fid*™ was applied to the 
imaginary staining of Csesarism and to the unspotted 
pureness of an absolute integrity. Under this usage the 
Baptre of Cotytto would be her priests who imbue with 
Cotyttoism, or her disciples imbued by Cotyttoism. 

The result of a general consideration of the elements 
entering into a determination of the meaning of the word 
pd-rat, would present several words as worthy of thought- 
ful consideration, among which appear — the dipped, the 
washed, the dyed, the imbued. 



170 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

The dipped. — Dr. Conant adopts this translation, yet 
not without intimating that he was not entirely satisfied 
with it. 

I am not aware of any special reason which can be 
offered in its support. If these persons dipped their 
bodies into water, or were clipped by one another, were 
they the only persons who did so ? Is there any reason- 
able foundation for grounding a distinguishing title, sepa- 
rating them from all others, on such practice? But, again, 
if the practice of dipping the person, more or less, into 
water gave origin among the Greeks to the title ftd-rac, 
who shall, against the Greeks, set up the title {ia-xiaxm as 
designating a similar class of people? Unquestionably, 
the proper word to use in such case is that of Bapters, and 
not Baptists; and thus, again, we are brought, face to face, 
with the error of our Baptist friends in attempting to con- 
vert a bapting into a baptizing, & dipping into an immersion. 

If Dr. Conant is right in translating ftdxrai dippers, then 
Baptists are wrong in their name as denoting their mode 
of performing the Christian rite, and in attempting to 
substitute a bapting (Egyptian or Cecropian in form) for 
our most holy baptism. 

The washed. — The opinion that a ivashing, in some 
form, is designated by this word seems to have met with 
considerable favor. 

The annotator on Juvenal says that it is from pditretv, to 
wash, and that those who were initiated into these mys- 
teries were washed (tingebantur) with warm water. Valla 
expresses the idea using madefacio, to make wet. 

The Scholiast, who quotes Alcibiades, may be adduced 
as favoring a dipping, or wetting, or washing, according 
to our views derived from other quarters. It is obvious, 
however, that the opposition between fidnreq and fia~~iW; 
makes the latter the stronger word. The difference is such 
as between dipping and mersing, drowning. 

It does not follow, however, that the verb in the epi- 
gram is used in the same sense as the derivative noun in 



THE DYED. 171 

the comedy; it may be a congruity purely verbal and not 
of sense which is designed. 

The meaning, "washings, lustrations," has been ob- 
jected to on the ground that these were common things, 
and could not be supposed to give rise to a distinctive 
name for any class of persons. 

The force of this objection is tacitly admitted by the 
author of the first communication; but his reply is — no 
adequate, positive vindication of any meaning based on 
dyeing has been presented. If this should be done, the 
force of the objection will have full operation. 

The dyed. — This meaning, while having no less claim 
than those preceding, on general grounds, can present a 
stronger special plea than either. The evidence that these 
persons did dye is more complete than that they did either 
dip or wash. Dyeing was a well-known characteristic of 
this class of persons, and Juvenal expressly states this as 
one of their practices. There is no difficulty, therefore, 
either from the word used, or from the facts of the case, 
in this particular, in employing "the dyed" as the trans- 
lation of 6t fid-rat. But there are two difficulties, notwith- 
standing, which confront us. 1. All "dyed" persons did 
not belong to the class spoken of, and therefore this mean- 
ing lies under the same disability as these preceding. 
Dyeing was a very common practice, as well as "dipping," 
and "washing," and, therefore, could not be employed to 
denote a limited class among those to whom the character- 
istic was common. 2. While dyeing is spoken of as one 
feature marking these people, it is only spoken of as one 
among many others, and those others immensely more 
important as elements of character. 

It is impossible, therefore, that " the dyed ones" could 
exhaust the import of 6t ftdxrat; and whatever fitness it 
might have in its bearing upon a single particular, and 
that of the least possible importance, it cannot meet the 
case except as regarded as a finger-board pointing on 
toward that which it is unable of itself, directly, to ex- 



172 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

press. But in that case it cannot retain its original limita- 
tion of meaning, but must attract to itself, by its association, 
a newness and a fulness of meaning not before possessed. 
In other words, the suggestion of color is lost, merged in 
other, more momentous, elements of character. 

The imbued. — The vital element to be regarded in the 
interpretation of this word is found in the fact that it 
designates a limited class of profoundly marked character. 
Neither "the dipped," nor "the washed," nor "the dyed," 
in their own proper meaning meets such a case. Un- 
doubtedly either of these expressions might be modified 
and extended by appropriation; but in the case before us 
the one most likely to be selected for such service is 
the last. 

It is quite possible that these Baptse introduced some 
peculiarity in the process or extent of the dyeing. Juvenal 
may refer to this where, after describing the dyed eyebrow, 
he adds, "pingitque trementes aitolleus oculos." The painting 
of the eyelids, or the eyelashes, may have been introduced 
by these persons, and thus made their class emphatically 
" the dyed or painted ones." But if such were the origin, 
and primary force of this term, it certainly did not con- 
tinue to have such narrowness of import. Juvenal, cer- 
tainly, did not so use the term. Eupolis, almost as certainly, 
did not. Now, embody the idea in what one term we may, 
the fact is certain that " the Baptse" were those, priests 
or disciples, or both, who were imbued with the spirit of 
Cotytto, "the Goddess of Immodesty." 

Whatever Baptse may have originally expressed, or what- 
ever may have been the immediate exciting cause to give 
this word such direction, it was appropriated to designate 
a class of persons singularly debased and debauched ; ef- 
feminate, voluptuous, and licentious — priests and people 
of a dancing courtesan, deified. 

In view of a fact like this, it becomes a matter of very 
secondary interest to know from which stem of pdnzu) this 
derivative proceeds, for in either case, as dipped or dyed, it 



THE IMBUED. 173 

must accept the meaning which results from appropria- 
tion. Whatever may have been the original meaning of 
the term " Methodist/' or whatever may have been the 
original ground of its application, such original meaning 
and ground of application very speedily disappeared from 
the appropriated title, "the Methodists." The same is 
true of the term Quaker as applied to "the Quakers." Can 
there be any doubt that " 6t pdrcrac" is to be explained in 
the same way, and that the Baptse designated neither "the 
dipped" into water, nor "the dyed" with blackened brows, 
but those who were dipped deeply into, dyed in, imbued 
with, Cotytto-ism? 

In a word, this derivative expresses not quality of color, 
but has passed on to express quality of character. 

This investigation as to the meaning of ^dTzrw appears to 
justify the following conclusions: 

1. The severe limitation of this word to the two mean- 
ings to dip, to dye, is no better grounded than the limitation 
to a single meaning, to dip. 

2. The natural and prevailing syntax used with fid-xta* to 
dip is to place the element, into which the dipping takes 
place, in the accusative with &q; while {3d-Tw to dye, as nat- 
urally and prevailingly, requires the element, by which 
the coloring influence is to be exerted, to be put in the 
dative, usually, without a preposition. 

3. Bd-ra), after having exercised its powers in communi- 
cating the quality of color through dyeing, staining, paint- 
ing, passes on a step farther, and expresses the communi- 
cation of qualities which are devoid of color. 

And in this extreme development (3d--<D makes its nearest 
approach to assimilation with §aTtriZ*a. 



174 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

TINGO. 
ITS MEANING AND USAGE. 

The meaning of tingo is so well understood and so uni- 
versally accepted, that the passages about to be adduced 
are not cited, so much, to show what is the meaning of 
that word as to reflect light upon the more controverted 
Greek word. 

If in any language we meet with a word whose usage in 
a particular sense is questioned; and we find the corre- 
sponding word in another language clearly used in such 
sense; the usage, before doubtful, becomes greatly con- 
firmed, if not established. The usage of j8dnru> and tingo is 
as nearly identical, under every phase, as the usage of two 
words, in different languages, could well be. They mutu- 
ally illuminate each other. A few passages will abun- 
dantly illustrate this statement. 

PKIMARY. 
TO DIP. 

Spongia in aceto tincta Celsus. 

Sponges dipped in vinegar. 
Tingunt faces in amne. Ovid. 

They dip the torches in the river. 
Primumque pedis vestigia tinxi. . ' . . . Ovid. 

And first 1 dip the soles of my feet. 
Protinus eductam navalibus sequore tingi, . . . . Ovid. 
Aptarique suis pinnm jubet armamentis. 

And orders the vessel to be dipped in the sea. 
Arctos metuentes sequore tingi Virgil. 

The Bears fearing to be dipped in the sea. 
Nee tingueret celeres plantas aequore. . . . Virgil. 

Nor would she dip her swift feet in the sea. 

These passages are too clearly self-interpretative to need 
any comment. 



TO WET. 175 

" The Pine," or vessel, of which Ovid speaks as being 
" dipped in the sea" when launched, and which, then, 
rises again to its natural position on the water, shows that 
an object may be dipped, without being covered, when no 
part is specified. It illustrates, also, the limitation of the 
use of tingo, as applied to ships, compared with mergo. 
Tingo applies to the momentary descent of a vessel into 
the water, beyond what is usual, in the launching, but is 
never used to express a permanent, indefinite, or sunken 
condition of a vessel. The same distinction obtaining as to 
the usage of these words, in this respect, as in the case of 

PcLktw and Pa-riXa). 

The act expressed by tingo is one which, evidently, car- 
ries its object only temporarily and superficially within a 
fluid. The dipping, by launching, spoken of by Ovid, is 
illustrated by the following quotation : " On Saturday 
morning the Dunderberg was launched. The launch was 
in all respects successful. The vessel went into the water 
beautifully. She dipped some water, but immediately rose to 
her place and sailed handsomely to the middle of the chan- 
nel." Could you say she immersed some water? 



TO WET. 

Tingere pascua rore Calpurnius. 

To wet the pastures with dew. 

Et mero tinguet pavimentum Horace. 

And wet the pavement with wine. 

Neque enim celestia tingi ora decet lachrymis. . Ovid. 

Nor is it becoming that celestial faces be wet with tears. 

Necdum flnctus latera ardua tinxit. . . . Virgil. 
Nor yet has the wave wet his lofty sides. 

In these, and like passages, to dip and to dye are impos- 
sible meanings. We are shut up to the translation to wet. 

The instrumental case, without a preposition, is used as 
is the dative with par^m in its secondary meaning. 



176 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 



TO WASH. 

Nuda superfusis tingamus corpora lymphis. . . Ovid. 

Let us wash our naked bodies with water poured over them. 
Lydia Pactoli tinguit arata liquor. . . . Propertius. 

The river Pactolus washes the Lydian fields. 
Quia aqua, calid& tingebantur. . . . Juvenal (note). 

Because they were washed with warm water. 

TO MOISTEN, TO ANOINT. 

Tingere membra Pallade pingui Ovid. 

To moisten the limbs icith rich oil. 
Ssepe oculos memini tingebam parvus olivo. . . Perseus. 

I often moistened my eyes with oil. 

In such passages, the nature of the case and grammatical 
construction unite to declare that the element is used as an 
agency; and to exclude the meanings, both, of dip and dye. 
Yet, in the first passage, if we had not, by express state- 
ment, the word by which the water was applied to the 
body, we should be doomed to hear the exhaustless argu- 
ment — " tingo, ftdTzro), fia-Ti'Cw, mean to dip; naked bodies are 
suitable objects for dipping; water is the very element for 
the purpose; and there is a plenty of it — therefore, this was 
a case of dipping." The passage from Ovid is utterly de- 
structive to such reasoning. The dipping was by pouring! 
Where the word expressive of the act is not stated it can- 
not be found in tingo y or, in such cases, in any other cor- 
responding word. 

Whether Gale would say of this passage — "dipped as it 
were by pouring over;" or Carson — "it means in this pas- 
sage to dip just as much as any other, one mode of action 
being put, by calachrcsis, for another mode of action;" or 
Fuller — it means dip, being an " extravagant and impas- 
sioned" utterance for " drench" — I do not know; but I do 
know, that in like cases a sound discretion is, as absolutely, 
abandoned. 



TO DYE. 177 

SECONDARY. 
TO DYE. 

Testes Gaetulo murice tin etas Horace. 

Garments dyed with Gcetulian purple. 
Superciliura madida fuligino tinctum. . . . Juvenal. 

The eyebrow dyed with moist soot. 
Phocaico bibulas tingebat murice lanas. . . . Ovid. 

Dyed the absorbing wool with Phocean purple. 
Tanta est decoris affectatio ut tingantur oculi quoque. Pliny. 

Such is the longing for beauty, that the eyes, also, are dyed. 
Tinguntur sole populi. Pliny. 

The people are dyed by the sun. 

The remark of Pliny, that the dyeing " the eyes" was 
something unusual, and regarded as a mark of extrava- 
gance, in connection with the statement of Juvenal that 
the Baptse not merely dyed their brows but <c pa.intecl their 
eyes," shows that there is some foundation for supposing 
that their name originated, not in their practice of dyeing 
and painting as commonly practised; but in some pecu- 
liarity or extravagance; and, then, embraced a class distin- 
guished for all extravagance and immoral excesses. 

The allusion to the "dyeing" of the body by the rays 
of the sun, is parallel with that by Achilles Tatius in speak- 
ing of the East Indians : "Kal zypel to ew/xa too nopbq tt { v [iayfy — 

the body takes the color of fire ." 

The phraseology attaches no limit to the mode of dye- 
ing. In no case is the object dyed represented as put into 
the dyeing material. To dip the people in the sun would 
be an embarrassing undertaking. The sun's rays d}^e by 
falling on the body. Tingo does not mean to fall. Such 
word must be understood. So in evejw case where a con- 
dition or result is expressed, such expression exhausts the 
word making it; and it cannot, also, express the act by 
which the condition or result is effected. This is true 
of tingo, to dye, pd-zw, to dye, and of paxri'ii) through all its 
usage. 

12 



178 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 



TO PAINT. 



Tingit cutem Marinus, et tamen pallet. . . . Martial. 
Marinus paints his skin, and yet is pale. 



TO STAIN. 

Yictima, pontificum securim, cervice tinguit. . . Horace. 

The victim stains the axe of the priests with its neck. 
Et virides aspergine tinxerat herbas. . . . Ovid. 

And stained the green grass by the sprinkling of the blood. 
Musto tingue novo mecum dereptis crura. . . Virgil. 

Stain with me the bared legs by the new wine. 

None of these cases can, properly, be considered as 
cases of dyeing. They are, also, far removed from the 
form of dipping. The blow of an axe, the dropping of 
blood from a wound, the trampling of grapes, which, 
severally, meets the demands of tingo, show that this 
word, like /5<*-rw, has ceased to make demand for modal 
action. Even " sprinkling" can meet the requirements 
of this modified dipping. 

Conant translates " hcedufiei Try Se&dv rw Xaifiy pairriaai to 

icarptxu) — he desired to plunge his right hand in his father's 
neck." Horace suggests, " baptize, merse, cover with blood 
by his father's neck," since he says, "the victim stains the 
axe with its neck," not in it. 

TO TEMPER. 

El Stygia candentem tinxerat unda Virgil. 

And tempered it glowing hot with Stygian water. 

The act by which the sword was subjected to the pecu- 
liar influence of " the Stygian water" may have been that 
of dipping, and yet " tinxerat" not used for the purpose 
of expressing such act. When tingo is used to denote 
dyeing, although that result should be accomplished by 
the process of dipping, the word which expresses the 



TO IMBUE OR TO TINCTURE. 179 

result cannot at the same time express the process. Tingo 
cannot express both to dye and to dip. When tingo ex- 
presses the tempering of metal, it cannot, also, express the 
dipping (if that be the process), any more than it can 
express sprinkling, if that be the process. 

TO IMBUE OR TO TINCTURE. 

It has been already remarked, in speaking of this class 
of meanings in connection with /tarrw, that imbue was felt 
to be too strong a word to use in this case; but that, no 
better presenting, it was adopted. Perhaps tincture would 
be preferable. These words are used interchangeably; yet 
the latter has less breadth of application, and less power 
in its import, while it may express the communication of 
quality irrespective of color, with which it stands, verbally, 
related. 

In making use of tincture, in this relation, it is regarded 
as thoroughly divorced from all coloring element. 

Non ego te meis immunem meditor tinguere poculis. Horace. 

I do not purpose to tincture you with my bowls. 
Orator sit tinctus Uteris Cicero. 

An orator should be tinctured with letters. 
Eomano sale tinge libellos Martial. 

Tincture the writings with Roman salt. 
Yis aurea tinxit flumen Ovid. 

The golden potency tinctured the river. 
Et incerto fbntem raedicamine tinxit. . . . Ovid. 

And tinctured the fountain with the ambiguous virtue. 
Cum dira libido .... fcrventi tincta veneno. . Perseus. 

Fierce passion tinctured with fiery poison. 
Ignibus et sparsa tingere corpus aqua. . . Ovid, Fasti. 

To tincture the body with fires and sprinkled water. 
Haec, quibus, tingendus est animus. . . . Seneca. 

Those things with which the mind must be tinctured. 
Hoc fimo tinctum in scrobem demisit. . . . Seneca. 

This tinctured with manure he put down into the trench. 



180 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

This usage exhibits tingo (in common with j3d7zrio, having 
already laid aside modality of act, dyeinghy sprinkling, &c.) 
as laying aside, now, dyeing, and imparting any quality what- 
ever. 1. The intoxicating quality of wine r to a limited extent 
2. The quality of transmuting into gold,, imparted to a 
river. 3. The quality of transforming the human person, 
communicated to a fountain. 4. The quality of pureness 
given to the human body by "fire and sprinkled water." 

I am aware that tangere has been proposed as a substi- 
tute for "tingere;" but would retain tingere — 1. As, ap- 
parently, the more difficult reading. If we attempt to 
translate this passage from the Fasti (iv, 790) by a mere 
reference to dip and dye, we are at once involved in inex- 
tricable embarrassment, and look around for succor. This 
is found, as supposed, in tangere; but before a readings 
which involves some difficulty, is rejected, would it not be 
well to inquire, whether we may not have overlooked some 
usage of the word which will fully vindicate its retention 
in the passage ? 

2. As the much superior reading when fairly inter- 
preted. 

There is nothing of elegance or fitness in u tangere" to 
meet the demands of the passage. The most that can be 
said in its favor is, that it relieves, measurably and awk- 
wardly, of a difficulty from which no better way of escape 
was seen. But the difficulty is of our own creation. 
"Fire and sprinkled water" do, unquestionably, according 
to ancient rites, purify the body. Let Ovid say this; let 
tingo express this; and what use have we for " tangere?" 

3. Such use of tingo is in proof. And this very passage 
gives evidence, not least in force and beauty y in its support. 
The purifying quality which belongs to sacrificial fires, and 
to water ritually sprinkled, is exerted over the body which 
is brought within their influences; and they tincture it 
with their characteristic quality, expelling impurity and 
imparting pureness. 

4. Those purified by u sprinkled water" would be, prop- 
erly, designated as — TinctL 



TO IMBUE OR TO TINCTURE, 181 

Two other passages may be sufficient to exemplify the 
meaning under consideration. 

Non ilia, quibus perfundi satis est, sed haec tingendus est 
animus- Seneca. 

Not those studies tcith ichich it is sufficient to be sprinkled, but 
those with which the mind should be tinctured. 

This passage is parallel with those from Antoninus; and, 
like them, exhibits quality without color communicated to 
the mind. We have, also, in this passage, incidental proof 
of this iuteq^retation, in the contrast between per/undo and 
tingo. The former, certainly, has nothing to do with 
color, and the word with which it is contrasted cannot. 
iso one would contrast sprinkled water and a dyed color; 
nor can the contrast be between sprinkling and dipping, 
for they both represent, in themselves, but a very feeble 
effect ; while Seneca means to contrast superficialness with 
thoroughness. The fitness of tingo to express what is 
penetrative and abiding, comes from its use in the sense 
of dyeing ; and after it has dropped the idea of color. 
Hence per/undo denotes what is superficial; and tingo an 
incorporated quality. 

" Tinctum," in the second passage from Seneca, ex- 
presses the reception of the virtue of the manure by the 
olive tree. This is a case neither of dipping nor dyeing. 

Quam qui dona tulit Lernseo tincta veneno 

Eubolcasque suo sanguine tinxit aquas. Ovid, Ibis. 

He who bore the gifts tinctured with the Lerncean poison, 
And tinged the Eubozan waters with his blood. 

This passage reminds us, forcibly, of the epigram on 
Eupolis : 

There is in both, the suffering of individuals — Hercules 
and Alcibiades; and in both, the death by drowning, of 
the authors of that suffering — Lichas and Eupolis; and in 
both, a play upon words expressive of the suffering and the 
punishment — Ovid employing the same word with differ- 



182 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

ent meanings, and Alcibiades employing similar words "of 
different meanings. 

" Dona tineta" were gifts neither dipped nor dyed in 
Lernsean poison, but tinctured with it; the poisonous 
quality belonging to the Hydra had been imparted to the 
garment; and it is this quality only which is brought into 
view. " Tinxit aquas" just as clearly means to dye, to 
impart color, although, as a matter of fact, there was no 
such thing; the opportunity to introduce the same word 
to express death, in a rhetorical manner, is seized upon. 

So, Alcibiades employs pd-ru and paizziZat, allied in origin 
and sound, to express widely different meanings, and de- 
signing by their likeness in letter, to give emphasis to 
their unlikeness in meaning. Eupolis would dye him in 
plays; he would make Eupolis die in the sea. 

It would be difficult to find two words, in different lan- 
guages, which, starting out with sameness of meaning, 
continue pari passu, through all their development to ex- 
hibit such thorough sameness, in all their changing phases, 
as do ftdTZTu) and tingo. 

As they reciprocally illustrate each other, there is noth- 
ing wanting to the most satisfactory determination of the 
meaning of both. 



TO DIP. 183 



TO DIP. 

ITS MEANING AND USAGE. 

To dip, in English, has a usage in marked correspond- 
ence with that of ftd-xta), in Greek, and of tingo, in Latin. 
There i3 not, indeed, a perfect accord in every shade of 
meaning; there are some features of the Greek or Latin 
word which are not found in the English; and so, also, 
there are features in the English word which do not appear 
in the Greek or Latin; still, with these peculiarities of 
development, the radical elements are the same. A few 
quotations will place this statement beyond all question. 

PRIMARY. 
TO DIP. 

' The landscape gives the summit of a ridge of land that 
suddenly dips from sight, in the mid distance, and rises 
again in the form of a dim line of high ground drawn 
along the horizon." 

Rosa Bonheur. 

" The minister dipping the scoop into the water." 

Chalmers. 

" The Lady Mayoress dipped the corner of the towel 

into it," 

Id. 

" Children should never he dipped more than once." 

Sir A. Clarke 

"The dip of oars in unison awake, 
Without alarming silence." 

Glover. 

" So was he dight 
That no man might 

Hym for a frere deny, 
He dopped and dooked, 
He spake and looked 
So religiously." 

Sir T. More. 



184 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

" And dipt them in the gable well, 
The fount of Fame or Infamy. 
What well ? what weapon ? (Flavia cries.) 
A standish, steel, and golden pen !" 

Pope. 

"Dipping her fingers in a little silver vase of rose-water." 

Sir W. Scott. 

" The cloth thou dip'dst in blood of my sweet boy, 
And I, with tears, do wash the blood away." 

Shakspeare. 

" The fleet dipped their colors to the Queen's yacht." 

Fete at Cherbourg. 

"Now wheeling and dipping toward it, as a butterfly." 

Japan Legerdemain. 

1. In the first of these examples showing the primary, 
literal use of dip, we have the modal elements which enter 
into this word distinctly stated : " Suddenly dips from 
sight and rises again." The " rising again" is essential to 
a dipping in its primary use; in this it is radically distin- 
guished from jjlunge, dive, immerse, whelm, &c. 

2. The objects which are dipped claim attention. These 
are " a scoop," " the corner of a towel," " children," 
"oars," "head and shoulders," "pen," "fingers," "cloth," 
"flag," "bits of paper." None of these are selected cases. 
The smallness of the objects is not matter of accident. It 
is a necessity resulting from the nature of the act. Every 
object which is dipped must be brought out again from 
the element into which it has been introduced. This 
requires that the introducing power should have full mas- 
tery over its object; but, in all ordinary cases, it is human 
agency by which the act is performed, and the power 
employed that of the hand or arm; consequently, the ob- 
jects capable of being thus dipped are limited, and must 
be of trivial size and weight, as indicated by the examples 
adduced. Thus the nature of the objects gives testimony 
to the nature of the act. 



TO WET. 185 

3. Some modifications of usage require notice. Ordi- 
narily a fluid element is present in a clipping; and, also, 
usually, the whole of an object is dipped when there is no 
limitation expressed; but Sir Thomas More says that the 
friar " doppcd and dookcd" — (dipped and ducked — " (top- 
ped being from dippan, the characteristic i being changed 
to o"); he did not dip into any fluid element, but merely 
performed the modal acts of depressing and elevating, not 
his whole body, but his head and shoulders; still the act 
is legitimately attributed to the whole man, and although 
our Baptist friends put, ritually, but the head and shoulders 
under water, it may lawfully, and of right can, be called 
only a dipping. 

The case from Pope, also, shows that the " steel and gold 
pen" maybe said to be dipped in the standish, although an 
unexpressed part, only, is so dipped. The last two cases, 
als*o, exemplify a dipping in which the modal act of lower- 
ing and raising a flag, or bits of paper by fanning, is per- 
formed without carrying the object into a fluid element. 

TO WET. 

" She fables not; I feel that I do fear 
Her words set off by some superior power ; 
And though not mortal, yet a cold shudd'ring dew 
Dips me all o'er, as when the wrath of Jove 
Speaks thunder." Comus. 

" She alway smyled, and in her hand did hold 
An holy- water sprinckle, dipt in do we." Faere Queene. 

Comus could not be dipped in dew under any circum- 
stances, much less in drof)s, formed by fright, on his own 
body; we are, therefore, under necessity to understand 
" dip," here, as expressing not modal action but the effect, 
wetting, which is the usual consequence of dipping. This 
is, also, a fair and legitimate explanation of the second 
case, although the necessity is not, in all respects, so abso- 
lute. To lean heavily on " in" to oppose this interpreta- 
tion, would be to lean on a reed, which might break and 



186 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

pierce the hand confiding in it. We speak of an object 
being "left out in the dew," although impossible that it 
should be, literally, in the dew. Gideon's fleece was thus 
"in the dew," and so was Nebuchadnezzar; and the con- 
dition of wetness consequent on such exposure, may be 
designated by dip or tingo, or, as in the case of Babylon's 
king, by famo*. 

TO BATHE. 

" He walked to the river to take his customary dip." 

Judge Brackenridge. 

" The dip was over, and dripping with brine, they 

hastened back." Cape May Letter. 

"In whose waters Cardinal Wiseman was dipped." 

Letter from Wales. 

Since, in bathing, the act of dipping the body more or 
less, is of common and frequent occurrence; that word has 
come to be familiarly employed to designate the whole 
transaction; and is equally applicable to the bathing, 
whether any, technical, act of dipping take place or not. 

TO EXAMINE SLIGHTLY. 

" Only to dip into a Hebrew or Greek Lexicon." 

Booth, i, 115. 

" I have just dipped into the works of such an author." 

Id., i, 123. 

" We have occasionally dipped into the novels." 

Editorial. 

" He resolved to dip into it, but took no serious notice 

Of what he read." Col. Gardiner. 

" We first dipped into the pages of Whiston's Josephus." 

Rev. Dr. Leyburn. 

" Dip into the work where you like." 

Review. 

" I have dipped into Aristotle and several other masters 

of the science." Rev. Dr. Thornwell. 



TO EXAMINE SLIGHTLY. 187 

Such usage is clearly based on the superficial entrance, 
and transitory continuance, of an object within a fluid ele- 
ment. The effect upon an object, under such limitations, 
must be trivial. To dip into a book is to make a super- 
ficial and transient examination of its contents. There- 
fore, Dr. Thornwell commits no offence against modesty 
when he claims to have "dipped into Aristotle; 5 ' but mod- 
esty would never have allowed him to say of himself, " I 
have been immersed in Aristotle and other masters of 
logic." So vastly diverse is the import of the one word 
and the other. 

There are some who seem disposed to insist that these 
" Lexicons" and "Novels," as, also, "Aristotle and his 
Logical Compeers," should represent pools of water, be- 
cause associated with "dip into''' Can such a demand 
escape the supremest ridicule? Grant that "dip into" is 
phraseology fashioned at the water-pool. "What then? 
Does it follow, that when such phraseology is taken away 
from the pool and articulated with books and philosophers, 
that it has a charm whereby they are incontinently meta- 
morphosed into water-ponds? But, even let the experi- 
ment be tried. Let lexicon, and novel, and Josephus, and 
Aristotle, be turned into any fluid that may please best. 
And what next? Why, then, we are to " dip into" them. 
Very good. And let that be done. What next? Why, 
then, I suppose we are to come out a little wet, which damp- 
ness is (by the force of a lively imagination) to be converted 
into a trifling amount of Lexicography, or Fiction, or Jew- 
ish History, or Stagiritic Logic, as the case may be ! 

This may be highly imaginative, yet be seriously defi- 
cient in homely common sense; which would teach us to 
modify the meaning of the foreign phraseology to suit its 
new relations; taking out of its original use what is de- 
manded by its novel position, and allowing the remainder 
to tarry, still, by the water. Thus "dip into" is trans- 
formed into examine slightly. 



188 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 



TO ENGAGE IN, MORE OR LESS DEEPLY. 

" For warrants are already issued out : 
I met Brutidius in a mortal fright : 
He's dipt for certain, and plays least in sight." 

Dryden. 

" When men are once dipt, they go on until they are 

Stifled." L' Estrange. 

" Full in the midst of Euclid dip at once, . 
And petrify a genius to a dunce. " Pope. 

" Dipping deeply into politics." Pursuits of Literature, 

"He was a little dipt in the rebellion of the Commons." 

Dryden. 

" Who was secretly dipt in some papers of this kind." 

Dunciad (note). 

" O'wer mony great folks dipped in the same doings." 

. Sir W. Scott. 

Qualifying adjuncts — "full in the midst," "deeply," 
" little,"— may increase, or diminish, that feebleness which, 
by nature, belongs to dip. The meaning exhibited in these 
passages is, obviously and essentially, different from the 
preceding. 

TO MORTGAGE. 

" Put out the principal in trusty hands, 
Live on the use 5 and never dip thy lands." 

Dryden. 

"Lord T had dipped so deeply into his property." 

M?*s. Sherwood. 

Money taken out of real estate, by mortgage, is called 
dipping the land. 

By dipping with an empty vessel into a fluid we take 
out a portion of it; so, by a mortgage we take out a por- 
tion from our property and fill an empty pocket. 

This idea is the ground of usage in the following 
passages. 



TO DYE. 189 



TO TAKE OUT. 

" She dipped up water in her hands and gave her child." 

Wyoming Massacre. 

" As they dipped their hand in Uncle Sam's pocket." 

Current Literature. 

" The ministers allowed the Prince to dip deep into the 
national purse." id. 

As the empty hand, hollowed, dipped into the stream, 
brought up water; so the empty hand dipped into the 
nation's purse brings out gold! 

This meaning the Greeks could readily understand; for 
it is involved in ra xcdmdi xqpia fidipat — dip honey with a pitcher, 
Theocritus y Idyl 5, 127; but its specific application — "never 
dip thy lands" — would, at first sight, prove embarrassing. 



SECOKDAKY. 
TO DYE. 

" Fancy, that, from the bow that spans the sky, 

Brings colors, dipp'd in heaven, that never die." 

Cowper. 
" And made the symbols of atoning grace, 

An office key, a picklock to a place, 

That infidels may prove their title good 

By an oath dipp'd in sacramental blood." Cowper. 

11 The middle parr 
Skirted his loins and thighs with downy gold 
And colors dipt in heaven ; the third his feet 
Shadowed from either heel with feathered mail 
Sky tinctured grain." Milton. 

" Over his lucid arms 
A military vest of purple flow'd, 
Livelier than Melibaean, or the grain 
Of Sarra, worn by kings and heroes old 
In time of truce; Iris had dipt the woof." Milton. 

11 DipH in the richest tinctures of the skies." 

" Or dip their pinions in the painted bow." Pope. 



190 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

" Dipt by cruel fate 
In Stygian dye, how black, how brittle here!" 

Young. 

u Thy wondrous love, 
That arms with awe more awful thy commands, 
And foul transgression dips in seven-fold guilt." 

Young. 

The usage of dip, in the sense to dye, is not, by any means, 
so thoroughly incorporated in the English language, as is 
that of fidx™ and tingo, in the same sense, in their re- 
spective languages.. The above quotations, however, will 
show that such usage is distinctly recognized 



TO STAIN. 

"Dipt his hands in the blood of a noble Norman." 

Sir W. Scott 

" The troops would not dip their hands in the blood of 

their countrymen." Tuscan Revolution. 

"He writes 
My name in heaven with that inverted spear 
(A spear deep dipt in blood !) which pierced his side." 

Young. 

These cases are essentially different from " the oath dipt 
in sacramental blood." 



TO IMBUE — TO TINCTURE. 

" I'll make him dip my sword and pike for me in holy water." 
"And I have arrows mystically dipped.' 1 

Coleridge. 

Custom dips men in as durable a dye as Nature." 

Cur. Lit. 
u Old Bavius sits, to dip poetic souls, 
And blunt the sense, and fit it for a skull 
Of solid proof, impenetrably dull ; 
Instant when dipt, away they wing their flight." 

Dunciad. 

1 1 Dipt me in ink. ' ' Pope. 



TO IMBUE — TO TINCTURE. 191 

" For not to have been dipt in Lethe lake 
Could save the son of Thetis from to die; 
But that blind bard did him immortal make 
With verses dipt in dewe of Castalie." Spenser. 

" A person dipped in scandal." Warburton. 

"Holy water" has no color to impart to "sword and 
pike;" but these are "dipt" for the purpose of securing, 
thereby, some quality or virtue ; they must, therefore, be im- 
bued or tinctured with some uncolored quality. The same 
is true of arrows " mystically dipped." They receive no 
quality which appeals to the eye, yet which is mysteriously 
powerful. Sword, and pike, and arrows, when taken out 
of the " holy water," still remain dipped, i. e. imbued, tinc- 
tured with the quality imparted; as, having been dipped 
into a dye, they would remain bapted after removal out of 
the dye. Colored, or uncolored, the quality communicated 
equally remains. The dye which "custom dips," is de- 
void of color; yet her tincture is as abiding as that of 
Nature herself; for " Custom is second nature." 

Poetic souls, dipped by Bavius into Lethe, may be tinc- 
tured very deeply with stupidity; but, when most deeply 
dipt, they fail to show any color of the rainbow. 

Spenser alludes to the same transaction which gives 
basis to Pope's poet-clipping; and compliments the genius 
of Homer as accomplishing that, by his 

" Verses dipt in dewe of Castalie," 

which the power of Lethe's waters had failed to effect. 
Verses, dipped in Castalian dew, are imbued with the spirit 
which reigns in that home of the Muses. 

" Holy water," " Lethe lake," " dewe of Castalie," are 
supposed to possess characteristic qualities, which they 
impart to objects dipped into them in fact, or by imagin- 
ation, or only of verbal suggestion; just as dye-water parts 
with its coloring quality under like circumstances. 

This is a modified use of dip, and most justifiable ex- 
tension of its meaning, in which is repeated the usage of 
fid-ret) and tingo. 



192 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 



APPROPRIATION. 



" Kelenting forms would lose their power or cease, 
And e'en the dipped and sprinkled live in peace." 

Cowper. 

" The clipped/' and not the immersed, is the title to be 
appropriated to those who receive the Christian rite by 
dipping the upper part of the body into water. 

The jSaTtrac and the fiaTZTiarai are separated by an immense 
interval. 

" THE DIPPERS," alias SNUFF RUBBERS. 

There is another appropriated use, not so generally un- 
derstood, and which is thus explained : " It may be that 
some of your readers are not familiar with the practice of 
' dipping.' I will say, therefore, that a dipper is one who, 
having separated the fibres of a hickory stick by chewing 
it, uses it, when wet with saliva, as the means of convey- 
ing snuff from the family box or pouch to the mouth." 

Hon. W. D. Kelley. 

Whatever the pdnrai of Eupolis may have been, they 
certainly differed from these " dippers;" the nearest point 
of resemblance, probably, being that the latter dyed their 
mouths with snuff, and the former dyed their eyes with 
soot In both cases, the origin of the name ceases to con- 
trol its meaning, and becomes expressive of habit and 
character. 

RESULTS. 

Making no claim to having exhausted the great variety 
of usage which characterizes these words, enough has been 
exhibited to show: 

1. Bd'xoi signifies — Primarily. (1.) To dip, (2.) to moisten, 
(3.) to wash. 

Secondarily. (1.) To dye, (2.) to stain, (3.) to paint, (4.) to 
gild, (5.) to temper, (6.) to tincture, without coloring. 



RESULTS. 103 

2. Tingo signifies — Primarily. (1.) To dip, (2.) to wet, (3.) 
to moisten, (4.) to wash. 

Secondarily. (1.) To dye, (2.) to stain, (3.) to paint, (4.) 
to temper, (5.) to tincture, without coloring. 

3. Dip signifies — Primarily. (1.) To dip, (2.) to wet, (3.) 
to bathe, (4.) to examine slightly, (5.) to engage in, (6.) to 
mortgage. 

Secondarily. (1.) To dye, (2.) to stain, (3.) to tincture, 
without coloring. 

A glance at this statement shows that the Greek and 
Latin word has found fuller development in the direction 
of dyeing than of dipping ; while the English word has 
received larger development under the leadership of the 
act without the element of color. 

2. Each of these words expresses, primarily, an act 
characterized by the severest limitations in all directions. 
It is limited in force ; it is limited in the extent of its fluid 
penetration ; it is limited in the duration of continuance 
within the fluid; it is limited as to its objects, and it is 
limited, by the necessities of the case, in the influence 
which is exerted. 

An invigorating element is introduced by the incorpora- 
tion of color in the secondary meaning; the force of which 
still remains when color is merged in simple quality. And 
it is in this direction, only, that it makes any real approach 
toward sympathy with the usage and essential power of 



3. One word reigns, unchanged, through all these Greek 
and Latin passages. This should be kept in distinct 
remembrance while we arc told that ySa-r^ has but 
one invariable meaning, and is most easy of translation. 
If both these statements be correct, then that "readily 
found" Anglic representative can be carried without change 
"through all Greek 'literature." This has never been 
attempted. A like doctri re was long pronmlged respect- 

13 



194 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

ing fidTerw, and maintained in utter disregard of sentiment 
and construction. 

It is obvious, that if the Greeks used the same word to 
express essentially different ideas, that they must have 
depended upon the sentiment expressed, and upon a modi- 
fied grammatical structure, to throw light upon the mean- 
ing. " The berry pressed dips the hand." " Drops falling 
on garments dip them." "Dip other colors." These were 
phrases employed by the Greeks, but wholly unintelligible 
in the primary sense of dip; and yet by a metaphoric 
translation, and by a cloud raised under the name of 
"figurative language," they were compelled, by contro- 
versialists, to bear the badge of the original dip. 

Severe pressure has constrained the admission of a sec- 
ondary meaning; and with this admission has come a 
modified translation, and grammatical structure is allowed 
its rights; so that the lake is no longer "dipped in the blood 
of the frog," bat " dyed by it." And while the Greeks 
still say that " garments are dipped (bapted) by sprinkled 
drops;" their translators no longer insist on their being 
dipped in them, but are content that they should be dyed 
by them. We, now, ask them to go a step farther, and 
admit that there may be a bapting without either a dip- 
ping or a dyeing, and, as well by sprinkling, as by any 
other mode. And, there, we will rest. 

A similar pressure, from sentiment and syntax, has com- 
pelled some of the leading Baptist writers to revolutionize 
their position, as to an invariable act of dipping in paacriCw, 
thus, endeavoring to spike the grammatical guns whose 
fire could no longer be endured; while they held on to a 
dipping, "sometimes, and pretty commonly." To this we 
cannot assent; but ask a full surrender, or the endurance 
as well as may be, of continued syntactical bombardment. 

Ten or a dozen words are required to represent pditTw. 
Will one answer for pa-irci'tol 

The Latins, like the Greeks, used but one word in all 
those passages, where we employ in translating, ten times 
as many. 



RESULTS. 195 

They said: "Dip the pastures with dew;" "Dip the 
pavement with wine;" "Dip the face with tears;" "Dip 
the body by water poured over it;" "Dip the limbs and 
eyes with oil;" "The sacrificial victim dips the axe with 
its neck;" "Dipped the grass by sprinkling;" "Dip you 
with my bowls;" "Dipped the river by a quality commu- 
nicated to it;" "Dipped the fountain" by similar means; 
"Dipped the sea by his blood;" "Dipped the body by 
sprinkled water." 

These are remarkable phrases, and will repay close 
study. We shall have need of some of them hereafter. 

Dip, in English, shows how sentiment and syntax must 
be our guide when a word is used out of its ordinary sense. 

"Dew dips me all over;" "Dip into Aristotle;" "Dip- 
ped in those doings;" "Dip thy lands." These are phrases 
which, at once, say, "Lookout for some other than the 
ordinary meaning." 

If we meet with precisely similar phrases in connection 
with fiannXo, who can chide us for rejecting the iron clamp 
— " one meaning through all Greek literature?" 



PART III. 

IMMEESE. 
ITS MEANING AND USAGE. 

"We now proceed to examine the meaning of * c immerse," 
as determined by general usage. This word is used, at 
will, by Baptist writers, as the equivalent of dip. They do 
not, indeed, employ these words, indifferently, in all cases; 
this they could not do; but where they must, they do dis- 
criminate, without any acknowledgment of the necessity; 
and where they may, without too open incongruity, there 
they confound and interchange. 

Whether "immerse" be coincident in meaning with 
/?a7rrw, tingo, and dip, or whether it be separated from them 
by a line, clear, deep, and radical, the sovereign law of 
usage must determine. To that we appeal, and by its 
decree will we loyally abide. 

MEANING. 

To immerse — 'primarily. — To cause to be in a state of 
intusposition (enveloped on all sides by,, ordinarily, a fluid 
element), without any limitation as to the depth of posi- 
tion, time of continuance, force in execution, or mode of 
accomplishment. • 

All of these points are the contradictories of those which 
have been shown to belong to dip. 

They are no less alien from the meanings shown to be- 
long to the Latin lingo, and to the Greek /Scctttw. 

The usage of these words is too clear, too bold, too 
abounding, to allow of any doubt. 
(196) 



INTUSPOSITION. 197 

PRIMARY. 
INTUSPOSITION. 

" The globe was in a state of immersion n much longer 
time than forty days." 

" The next objection, that there is not enough of water 
on the earth to submerge it to the depth necessary to cover 
the tops of the highest mountains." 

" The waters on the earth and under the earth could be 
so expanded by the rarefaction of the atmosphere, as to 
submerge the earth." 

These three passages all relate to the universal deluge. 
They speak: 1. Of the condition of the object immersed; 
it was " a state of immersion." 2. Of the time of con- 
tinuance ; " a much longer time than forty days." 3. Of 
"the depth" of the immersed object below the surface; 
the highest point being " fifteen cubits" beneath the roll- 
ing billows. 4. Of the mode in which it " could" be 
accomplished; " the waters could be expanded so as to 
submerge the earth." 5. Of the object immersed; "the 
globe." 

Now, I would ask: 1. Was it ever said of an object 
dipped that it was in "a state" of dipping? 2. Was the 
continuance of a dipping ever known to last "much longer 
than forty days?" 3. "Was a dipping ever known to put its 
object from fifteen cubits to half as many miles below the 
surface? 4. Was a dipping ever known to be effected by 
"the expansion" of the fluid until it surmounted its ob- 
ject? 5. Does dip number in the catalogue of objects 
which it takes up and places momentarily beneath the 
surface, such objects as this great "globe" which we in- 
habit? 

The English language will be searched in vain for any 
such phraseology. The nature of the case does not admit 
of it. Dip does not put its object into "a state;" but 
merely carries it into, and out of, a fluid element without 
allowing it to gain any status in it. How vital this dis- 



198 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

tinguishing difference is, in itself, is obvious; that the 
consequences, flowing from such diverse starting-points, 
must forever continue diverse, is no less obvious. 

Booth thinks that "Baptist sentiment and practice is 
made ridiculous " by the use of "plunge;" would the finger 
of ridicule be pointed any the less sharply, if Booth and 
his friends would test their principles by employing dip to 
express such cases of 



"A solid when immersed in a liquid becomes lighter by 
the weight of the fluid displaced." 

"Representing a globe half immersed in water." 

These statements necessitate a continuance of the state 
of intusposition. It is only as an object continues in a 
state of mersion that it becomes lighter. It is impossible to 
substitute dip for "immerse." The sentiment is, thereby, 
made untrue or impracticable. It is untrue that a dipped 
object is any the lighter for having been dipped; and it is 
impracticable to weigh an object which is, in transitu, going 
through the process of a dipping. 



" Not rest until he found the persons who caused his 
immersion in the dungeon." 

" We descended to the house, whence we emerged, on 
foot, upon the beautiful grounds." 

" The party emerged from the vehicle that I had driven 
up." 

Can you speak of a man shut up in a dungeon as being 
dipped into it ? Can you speak of a company shut up in a 
house as being in a state of dipping? or, when coming 
forth from it, as dipping out of it? 

Can you say of a party inclosed in a carriage that they 
are in a state of dipping? or, when they alight, that they 
dip out of it? 

I do not ask, whether such phraseology is unusual; but 



INTUSPOSITION. 199 

I ask, whether it is not absurdly impossible in the natifre 
of the terms? 

But it is most intelligible, most legitimate, and most 
nakedly true, that a man who is inclosed within the walls 
of a deep, dark " dungeon " is in a state of mersion. And it 
is no less true, that a company shut up in a house, or 
carriage, are also in a state of mersion; from which they 
" e-merge " in passing into the open air. 

Where is the ground for equivalence between dip and 
immerse? 



" Columbus is submerged, and the inhabitants are mov- 
ing about in boats." 

" The Great Eastern is submerged in steam blowing off 
from no less than twelve escape pipes." 

Was the town of Columbus, or the Great Eastern, dip- 
ped? Would it be possible to say that they were, and to 
talk English? 



*o' 



" After sixty years' immersion the gold looks as fresh 
as if it had been taken out of the bank." 

" Report in regard to the submerging of the Atlantic 
cable." 

" Some authors of great name have maintained that this 
part of the globe had but lately emerged from the sea." 

Is it customary to speak of a ship and her freight of gold 
being dipped in the ocean for the space of " sixty years?'' 

Is dip in English, any more than tivgo in Latin, or 
fidxTio in Greek, ever applied to the loss of a vessel at sea? 

Of the thousand times ten thousand speaking the Eng- 
lish language, and who have spoken of the laying of the 
Atlantic cable, has there been one man, woman, or child, 
educated or uneducated, in Great Britain or America, who 
has ever spoken about "dipping" the Atlantic cable to the 
bottom of the Atlantic Ocean? 

If a "part of the Earth" ha3 remained since the morn- 
ing of creation, until " lately," covered by the sea, can it 



200 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

be said to have been " clipped" all that time? " Immersed" 
it may have been for five thousand years, or five times Hve 
thousand, in the depths of the sea; but no one will say 
that it could, thus, have been dipped, except he should wish 
to make "the sentiment" (or himself) "ridiculous." 



"The lamp extinguished, he was immersed in total 
darkness." 

" Entreaties for aid, being drowned partly in the con- 
cave of the steel cap in which his head was immersed, and 
partly by the martial tune." 

Does the extinguishing of the flame of a lamp, and con- 
sequent envelopment in darkness, expound the modal act 
of dipping? It does expound mersion. 

Is the placing "a steel cap" on the head an exemplifi- 
cation of the modus requisite to dip the head? Thus the 
head is "immersed." 

When a candle blown out can dip a body (without mov- 
ing it a hair's-breadth) in darkness ; and when moving a 
"cap" to invest the head, can be said to dip the unmoved 
head in the cap; then, we may be ready to hear what can 
be said about the equivalence of dip and "immerse." 



" Rolling over the edge of the moat was immersed in 
the mud and marsh." 

" A box on the ear overthrew the falconer into the cis- 
tern; his wrath was noways appeased by the cold immer- 
sion." 

" Disgorging the sea- water which he had swallowed 
during his immersion." 

A man leaping over the wall of a town, and rolling into 
the mud and marsh of the moat, does not present a good 
picture of a dipping; either as to the mode or the quantum 
of force. 

A knock-down blow, tumbling a man into a cistern of 



INTUSPOSITION. 201 

water, is as little orthodox in these particulars. To effect 
an immersion they will answer quite well; but another 
fashion and a gentler mode would be required by most 
who sought a dipping. 

I call attention to the fact that these cases of mersion 
lasted but a short time. There is nothing in the nature 
of a mersion which requires that it should be protracted ; 
but when it is most brief in its continuance, it is still, 
essentially, distinguished from a dipping. It is so in man- 
ner and intention. In both these respects the above cases 
differ from a dipping. A man who falls into the mud 
cannot be said to dip himself into it; nor can a man who 
receives a blow on the ear and falls into the water be said 
to be dipped into it by the striker. 

It is especially to be noted, that in neither of the above 
cases does the immerser take out the object immersed. 
There was no limitation of the mersion on the part of the 
merser. Any of these parties might have continued to be 
mersed to the present hour, except they had, otherwise, 
recovered themselves from their mersed condition. 

It is not so in a dipping. The dipper always intends to 
put the object dipped only momentarily into the element; 
and does recover it, himself, out of it. Unless this is done 
it is not a case of dipping. 

The mere brevity of the mersion is no rational ground 
for confounding the act of dipping and the state of mersion. 

A man who falls overboard or is knocked overboard, as 
in one of the above cases, and is speedily recovered from 
the sea, may be said to have been immersed; he cannot be 
said to have been dipped. A bucket which is let down 
from the same vessel, into the sea, for the purpose of pro- 
curing water, is properly said to be dipped into the sea. 
The time of continuance in the sea by the man and the 
bucket may be the same; and yet, by reason of the differ- 
ences indicated, the only legitimate designation of the one 
is by immersion, and of the other by dipping. 

It is, however, by the occurrence of these occasional 



202 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

cases of brief immersion, that the semblance, and only the 
semblance, of justification, for the confounding of two 
terms whose broad usage is so diverse, can exist. 

And why wish to establish such confusion? Why not 
be content to call " a spade a spade," and a dipping a dip- 
ping ? The natural and unavoidable answer is: There is a 
necessity for confounding dip and immerse, because of the 
error which confounds fidxTw and fta-T^w. Dipping has been 
introduced into the Christian ordinance under the plea 
(honestly meant no doubt), that " the word of inspiration 
demanded it;" but, on examination, the Greek word for 
dipping is not to be found anywhere in the inspired record! 
Then the position is assumed, that " the word that is there 
means the same thing." It is shown, however, not to mean 
the same thing; but to have a usage perfectly antipodal. 
Then there is an attempt to mix, " through-other," this dip 
and immerse; and by discarding dip from the designation 
of the mode of administration, and by the use of immerse, 
to make some claim to the usage of /Ja^-rt'Cw, from which 
usage dip is wholly excluded. 

We cannot allow this mixing up of iron and clay. The 
magic stone of truth smites it, and it crumbles into its 
discordant elements. If the performance of a dipping be 
insisted upon, we insist on its being called just what it is 
— a dipping — and not an immersion, just what it is not. 

INTUSPOSITION WITH INFLUENCE. 

The cases of mersion, now stated, are not such as are 
accompanied with any marked influence on the object 
mersed. They were designed to show the radical idea 
of intusposition without limitation of depth, mode, force, 
or time. It is obvious, that any object so situated must 
be exposed to the fullest influence of the encompassing 
medium. The result of such influence will depend on 
the nature of the object exposed to it. A rock, and a bag 
of salt, a human being and a fish, will be very differently 
affected by encompassing waters. 



INTUSP0SITI0N FOR THE SAKE OF INFLUENCE. 203 

One or two passages will suffice to present this aspect 
of the case. 

" His horse .... 
Bushed to the cliff, and, having reached it, stood. 
At once the shock unseated him : he flow- 
Sheer o'er the craggy barrier: and immersed 
Deep in the flood, found, when he sought it not, 
The death he had deserved, and died alone." 

"At length, when all had long supposed him dead, 
By cold submersion, razor, rope, or lead." 

"But among other nations ' submersion' (which is the 
French for ' drowning'), leads off as the most fatal of 
accidents." 

What would be thought of the man who would intro- 
duce dipping into these passages as an equivalent? Neither 
dip, tingo, nor pdirru> drowns any one. Mersion does, and 
does by necessity of its nature, unless deliverance comes 
from some ab extra influence. 



"The clouds .... 
More ardent as the disk emerges more." 

The influence upon the sun of an immersion within the 
clouds is to quench the effulgence of his rays. 

" The river flows redundant; 
Then rolling back, in his capacious lap 
Ingulfs their whole militia, quick immersed." 

The mersion is destructive. The mode is by the water 
coming over its object. A movement by which a dipping 
cannot be effected. " Ingulf" is the equivalent of " im- 
merse." Is it ever the equivalent of dip f 

INTUSPOSITION FOR THE SAKE OF INFLUENCE. 

This is a development quite in advance of the other, 
while it furnishes a stepping-stone for still farther progress. 



204 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

" Then on the warm and genial earth, that hides 
The smoking manure, and o'erspreads it all, 
He places lightly, and, as time subdues 
The rage of fermentation, plunges deep 
In the soft medium, till they stand immersed. 71 

So Cowper describes the formation of a hotbed, and the 
mersion of seeds within it, for the purpose of bringing 
them within its full influence. In this instance the in- 
fluence is not destructive, but vitalizing. 

The passage, also, affords opportunity to see the dis- 
criminating difference between dip and "plunge." Plunge 
does not bring its object out of the element into which it 
carries it. Dip does. These words are never truly equiv- 
alent. Immerse agrees with "plunge," in not bringing 
out the object which it has caused to be introduced; but 
it differs from it, i-n that the latter term is limited as to the 
form of its action, and the nature of its force, and belongs 
to those words which are immediately expressive of action; 
and not of state or condition. 

This is clearly exhibited in the above passage, where 
plunge expresses the act by which the condition denoted 
by "immersed" is secured. And as here, so everywhere 
there is some satellitic word of action attendant on im- 
merse (expressed or understood), to perform its behests. 

"Whelm'd under our dark gulfs those arms shall lie, 
That blaze so dreadful in each Trojan eye; 
And deep beneath a sandy mountain hurl'd, 
Immersed remain this terror of the world. 

These his cold rites, and this his watery tomb." 

By such mersion it was sought to destroy Achilles. 
The element, again, moves to invest its object, in contra- 
diction of Dr. Carson's inconsiderately maintained posi- 
tion, that immerse must always dip. The act causative 
of the state of mersion is, here, " hurl'd," as before it was 
" plunge," and, yet previously was, " roll back," showing 
how absolutely free is immerse from all form of act. 
Whatever can effect a condition of mersion, immerse does 
not express but accepts as servitor. 



IMMERSED IN FURS. 205 



"IMMERSED m FURS. 77 

The influence sought to be secured by this mersion was 
such warmth as might be, thus, attained in the Polar 
regions. So says Dr. Kane. lie, probably, had good 
reason for his preference of a mersion in furs, over a dip. 

The cases of mersion, thus far considered, have been all 
primary and physical. They have all been marked by 
influence in some aspect. 

1. Capability for influence, rather than its actual exer- 
cise. 2. Controlling influence exercised, but without de- 
sign in securing it. 3. Mersion sought for the sake of its 
controlling influence. This influence we have seen to be 
most varied in character, but always controlling in power. 
We have, also, seen that the state of physical mersion is 
induced in ways and by forces most various. And, farther, 
that the element may come to the object, a& well as the 
object be brought to the element. 

We have, also, seen that the mersing substance may be 
"furs," "clouds," "soft earth," "steel cap," "house," 
"carriage," " dungeon walls," &c, &c, as well as water. 

R~ow, all these diversities uniting together in the unity 
of controlling influence, will prepare us, in passing from 
the consideration of physical mersions, to those which are 
not physical, to see a great variety of development as to 
forces and forms of agencies, while there will, everywhere, 
be present a resultant controlling influence. This is the 
grand resultant product of physical mersions. To secure 
this result as the end (and not the mersion), mersion has 
been sought. 

Where no mersion can be secured, in the nature of the 
case, but where it is desired to express the controlling 
influence of any person or thing; it will be natural to 
employ such form of phraseology as is expressive of a 
mersion, although no mersion is designed, even in imagina- 
tion, or, it may be, is conceivable, though we should tax 
our imagination to the uttermost. 

We will see that this, in fact, has been done. 



206 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 



INTUSPOSITION, VERBAL, EXPRESSING INFLUENCE. 

Forms of expression which are designed to express con- 
trolling influence; and which take their form from physical 
mersion as the source of such influence; may be regarded, 
sometimes, as properly figurative; hut, most commonly, as 
a direct expression of the thought without any design to 
present it indirectly through a picture of a physical trans- 
action. 

The following passages may he regarded as designed 
picturings : 

" The world was fast sinking into a sea of drunkenness; 
and the only wonder is that it was not entirely submerged 
under the flood." 

" The tide of Southern bank suspension, in its sweep 
northward, submerged Philadelphia, but was stopped at 
New York." 

But the following everyday phrases are not to be inter- 
preted as formal figure ; but as organic forms springing from 
a physical parentage whose lineaments they clearly reveal 
in their structure. The grosser elements of their original, 
however, they do not retain; but only an unsubstantial 
form, embodying, still, the vital spirit of controlling in- 
fluence. These phrases, therefore, are to be regarded as 
organic unities, having a common life, and not as disjunct 
words. 

" We are at last immersed in the horrors of civil war." 

" Kings in the plenitude of power, if immersed in ignor- 
ance and prejudice, are less free than sages in a dungeon 
and bound with material chains." 

" "No longer immersed in the ignorance of heathenish 
idolatry." 

" The Irish were a lettered people, while the Saxons 
were still immersed in ignorance." 

" Some of the places were so completely immersed in 
Popish darkness as not to present the best points for mis- 
sionary effort.''' 



INTUSPOSITION, VERBAL, EXPRESSING INFLUENCE. 207 

"Finding no foundation for a rational liberty on the 
emersion of the country from the corruption and tyranny 
of centuries, strove to save it by terrorism." 

" Some time before commenced the pecuniary embar- 
rassments of Sir Walter Scott, and his convulsive struggles 
to emerge- from them." 

" Instead of becoming immersed in secularity." 

" Of Calvary — that bids us leave a world 
Immersed in darkness and in death, and seek 
A better country." 

In all these passages, " immersed" is combined with 
"ignorance, prejudice, tyranny, corruption, secularity, Po- 
pish darkness," &c, for the simple and single purpose of 
developing, in the completest manner, that influence which 
is appropriate to its adjunct "In" is merely the formal 
vinculum necessary to the case; and is not to be pressed 
upon as though it made demand for a picture to be wrought 
out by the imagination. "Immersed in — ignorance," di- 
rectly and prosaically declares that those spoken of are 
under the controlling influence of ignorance. Or, we must say, 
that " under," in this expression, demands figure, and 
pictures some poor wretch as crushed beneath some -huge 
weight. Where, then, shall we find any direct channel for 
the utterance of our thoughts? 

It is not the case, however, that " immerse," used with 
an unphysical adjunct, does necessarily express influence 
exerted over its object. We have seen that immersed 
objects are variously affected according to their nature; 
and that some (as a rock), when immersed, are affected 
only as occupying a position within the encompassing 
element. This affords the basis for the use, under appro- 
priate circumstances, of immerse as simply indicating the 
fact of encompassing sources of influence, without their 
power being felt. 

This usage is exemplified in the following passage: 

" The missionary lives immersed in the sins of heathen- 
ism that he may raise them from death to a life of right- 
eousness." 



208 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

The missionary may, like Lot in Sodom, be "vexed with 
the filthy conversation" of the depraved around him; but, 
as the rock repels the encompassing billows, so he, while 
"immersed in the sins of heathenism," does, by divine 
grace, remain uncontaminated by their corrupting power. 

"Immersed in sins" would, ordinarily, imply being 
under their full, morally corrupting influence; but applied 
to the preacher of the gospel encompassed by the immo- 
ralities of heathenism, it has no such meaning. The fact 
of intusposition, only, is indicated. 

INFLUENCE WITHOUT INTUSPOSITION. 

" Immerse " does not always bring into view intusposi- 
tion, either in the limited measure, or as expressive of the 
ideas now considered. 

The physical form ceases to be even a transparent shadow 
through which influence is made visible. Both the form 
of the shadow, and the nature of the influence, disappear 
together. 

It is quite common to use "immerse" in phraseological 
combinations in which it expresses the most thorough 
engagedness; the most strenuous mental effort. If an ex- 
planation of the ground of this usage were asked, there 
might not be common consent shown in the reply; but 
this would only indicate how far, and how completely, the 
usage has been removed from the physical fact. The 
image has been worn off from the coin by long and varied 
handling. 

Perhaps the passage, already quoted, respecting Sir Wal- 
ter Scott's pecuniary embarrassment, may guide to the true 
solution. He being " immersed in pecuniary embarrass- 
ment," made "convulsive struggles" to extricate himself 
from it, and succeeded. Any man physically immersed 
must use all effort to save himself or perish. " Immerse" 
may thus come to be intimately associated with the effort 
necessary to escape from such position ; and, then, with 
mental effort without such appendages. The use of " im- 



INFLUENCE WITHOUT INTUSPOSITION. 209 

mersion," without any immersion, by Sir Walter Scott him- 
self, may be here, appropriately, introduced : 

" The boat received the shower of brine whieh the ani- 
mal spouted aloft, and the adventurous Triptolemus had a 
full share of the immersion." 

Here is an " immersion by sprinkling" from the showery 
brine. So we have seen a bapting by sprinkling among the 
Greeks, a Unction by sprinkling among the Latins, and a 
dipping by sprinkling in Milton's Comus. Do the framers 
of this phraseology (intending by it to construct a crown 
of supremest ridicule for their opponents), feel alarmed ? 
" Stones thrown up into the air may come down on our 
own pate." 

It is beyond all controversy, that one 'of the best writers 
of the English language does use the word "immersion" 
w 7 here no immersion, in fact, took place ; but only a thor- 
ough wetting by means of a profuse sprinkling. This is 
the incontrovertible fact. Did "the Wizard of the North" 
write good English? Were the laws of language unknown 
to " the Great Unknown ?" 

Unless these framers of sentences will crown, with their 
handiwork, Sir Walter as " Lord of the Eidiculous," they 
must even accept of " Immersion by Sprinkling." 

If, now, the author of Waverley is justified in writing, 
not under the poetic afflatus, nor as " one of the most im- 
passioned of men" (the explanation given of a similar 
Greekly baptism by Dr. Fuller), but in homely prose, of 
a thorough icetting as an " immersion;" then, we are justified 
in speaking of a thorough influence as an " immersion" where 
no immersion takes place; or thoroughly engaged, mentally 
occupied, as an " immersion," when no immersion, real or 
imaginary, takes place. 

It is this latter which it is proposed, now, to exemplify : 

" While Dr. Chalmers, immersed in Parliamentary re- 
ports as to the operation of the Poor Laws, was engaged " . . 

" November saw Dr. C. once more immersed in his pro- 
fessorial labors." 

14 



210 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

" The Secretary of War is immersed in business." 

" I find myself immersed in the matters of which I know 
least." 

" Men of business immersed in the cares of an extended 
traffic." 

" We in England are generally immersed in our own 
concerns." 

" Deeply immersed in calculations from the simple unit 
to millions, billions, and trillions." 

" As he rode on immersed in these unpleasant contem- 
plations." 

" They rode as men deeply immersed in their own 
thoughts." 

"Walking up and down the room immersed in thought." 

" The busy, bustling merchant immersed in all the cal- 
culation of this world's traffic." 

" He was a little too much immersed in worldly schemes. 
He attached himself so eagerly to business that he thought 
every hour lost." 

" He was so much immersed in politics that he did not 
care to be annoyed with it." 

" And immersed himself among a parcel of worm-eaten 
folios." 

" Had taken up the Prayer-Book; she seemed immersed 
in devotional duty." 

" Ha ! yes, I was so immersed in my book." 

" Continued immersed in the fascinating perusal." 

" The noonday prayer-meeting comes, happily, at that 
hour when we would be most likely to be immersed in the 
business or pleasures of the world." 

" The padre was on his way to church, and immersed in 
the study of his sermon." 

"I've just dipped into the works of such an author. 
Now, this far from signifying that I feel my mind, as it 
were, immersed in the author's writings." 

Whatever may be supposed to be the precise physical 
literality on which such usage of "immerse" rests; there 



MEANING ESTABLISHED BY USAGE. 211 

can be no doubt, but that, without suggestion of intus- 
position, it does, directly, express thorough mental engaged- 

ness. 

MEANING ESTABLISHED BY USAGE. 

The examination of this word has been pursued suffi- 
ciently far for our purpose. The conclusions reached are: 

1. Immerse expresses no form of act; but demands and 
secures for its object intusposition, without limitation of 
size in the object, force in the agency, depth in the ele- 
ment, or time in duration. 

2. ^Vhen the continuance of the intusposition is brief, 
it is not because of any limitation, or action on the part 
of immerse; but from causes foreign to it, and for which' 
it has no responsibility. No alliance, therefore, can be 
established with dip on this ground, any more than be- 
tween dip and sink, or ingulf, or swallow up, &c. ; all of whose 
objects may, by foreign influences, be recovered within a 
brief space from the condition to which they have been 
introduced. 

3. The preposition in composition — "in" — merse, — has 
a purely local force, and does not indicate movement of the 
object into — put into, dip into — as some writers have as- 
sumed. It is as legitimate to "immerse" by bringing the 
water to the object, as by bringing the object to the water, 
notwithstanding that Dr. Carson (whose like we are told 
the world will not see again for "a millenar}' of years") 
declares, that put into is so ingrained in the word that when 
it does not "put into" it still means put into. 

4. It may express a thorough wetting (without intusposi- 
tion), by sprinkling or otherwise. 

5. It may express death by drowning. 



212 CLASSIC BAPTISM, 

6. It expresses thorough influence of any kind; the nature 
determined by the adjunct. 

7. It expresses thorough mental engagedness. 

8. Immerse is antipodal to dip. Baptist writings which 
make these terms equivalents can be of no controversial 
value. Baptist Bible translation which commands " im- 
merse," and Baptist ritual practice which substitutes dip, 
have neither part nor lot in each other. 

9. While dip, tingo, and ftdxru) are joined in the closest 
bonds, immerse is, by nature, widely disjoined from them 
alL 



MERGO. 213 



MEEGO. 
ITS MEANING AND USAGE. 

1. Mergo expresses no definite form of action ; but makes 
the demand, in primary use, of intusposition for its object 
as its essential requisite. 

This it secures by forms of action, and by forces of 
agency, in endless variety. The magnitude of its objects, 
and the depth of penetration to which it introduces them, 
are also most varied in character. 

The duration of the mersion effected is without limit; 
although, as in any other case where an object has been 
sunk, ingulfed, or swallowed up, the object mersed may 
be recovered, from its state of mersion, by other influences. 

2. Capability of influence, necessarily, attaches to such 
state of intusposition. 

This influence will vary in development according to 
the nature of the object mersed, and the nature of the 
mersing element ; which appears in Latin usage to take a 
somewhat wider range than in Greek or English. 

3. The secondary use of this word has its development, 
necessarily, in the direction of. a controlling influence. 
Physical investiture is thrown aside. As, in physical mer- 
sion, whatever force can secure intusposition is an equally 
legitimate representative of the will of mergo ; so, in the 
secondary use, whatever agency (no matter in what form 
it may develop its power) is capable of exerting a control- 
ling influence over its object, may claim mergo to express, 
not the form of action, but the measure of the influence. 

4. To all these characteristics, primary or secondary, dip 
is, by usage, and must ever remain by necessity of nature, 
a perfect stranger. 



214 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

PEIMAKY. 
ILLUSTRATION BY USAGE. 

Primumque pedis vestigia tiDxi : 
Poplite deinde terms. Neque eo contenta recingor 
Nudaque mergor aquis Ovid. 

And I am mersed naked in the waters. 

In medias quoties visum captantia collum 
Brachia mersit aquas, nee se deprehendit in illis ! . Ovid. 
He mersed his arms into the midst of the waters. 

Juvat esse sub undis; 
Et modo tota cava submergere membra pallude 
Nunc proferre caput Ovid. 

And to submerse all their limbs in the deep pool. 

Furit iEsacus, inque profundum 
Pronus abit, lethique viam sine fine retentat. 
iEquor amat : nomenque nianet, quia mergitur, illi. . Ovid. 

The name (mergus) remains to him, because he is mersed. 

Et mergi projecta non possunt, licet gravia sint. . Seneca. 
Things cast into it cannot be mersed, although heavy. 

Nihil mergitur in Siciliae fonte Phintia. . . . Pliny. 
Nothing is mersed in Phintia, a fountain of Sicily. 

The first of these passages shows the distinctive use of 
lingo and mergo. The foot playing in and out of the water 
is dipped; the body under the water "gliding hither and 
thither/ 5 is in a state of mersion. How the body became 
mersed, there is not a ray of light to indicate either from 
mergo or any other quarter. It may have been by walk- 
ing gradually into deeper water; it may have been by leap- 
ing from the bank, at once, into deep water; or it may have 
been partially by walking, and, then, by slowly sinking 
down. We know that it was not by dipping, for dipping 
puts nothing into a state of mersion, but takes out, promptly, 
what it puts in, and is, therefore, what it is — a dipping. 

It should be noted that the head remains unmersed, 



MERSING MATERIAL VARIOUS. 215 

while there is no limitation in the language — "I am 
mersed in the waters." 

In the third quotation, the frogs are wholly underwater, 
and we know that this is hy leaping ; hut will any one say 
that "mcrgo" means to leap? Yet it does mean "to leap" 
just as much as it means any other act hy which mersion 
is effected. 

The last passage expounds the origin of the name 
" Mcrgus," a class of waterfowl. It arose from an attempt 
of ^Esacus to drown himself in the sea; when he was 
changed hy Tethys, in commiseration, into a Mergas. 



MERSING MATERIAL VARIOUS. 

Pandere res alta in terra et caligine mersas. . Virgil. 

To reveal things mersed in the deep earth and in darkness. 
Ferrum mersum in robora. .... Lucretius. 

Iron mersed in hard wood. 
Mersis in Sinum manibus. .... Quintillian. 

Hands mersed in the bosom. 
Flumen specu raergitur Pliny. 

The river is mersed in the cave. 
Mergit se limo Pliny. 

Jlerses in the mud. 

Mergcre manum in ora ursae Martial. 

Jlerse the hand into the mouth of the bear. 
Mersisque in corporc rostris Ovid. 

Dogs' mouths mersed in the body (of Action). 
Caecis ego mersa cavernis Ovid. 

Immersed in dark caverns. 
Membra simul pecudis. . . Mergit in sere cavo. Ovid. 

Jlerses the limbs of the ram in the hollow brass. 
Mersitque suos in cortiec vultus. . . . Ovid. 

And mersed her features in the bark. 

This last passage, in which Myrrha is transformed into 
a tree, is in perfect harmony with a state of mersion; it 
can scarcely be made to accord with a dipping. 



216 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

The following passages, showing the covering material 
brought over the object, are, in like manner, inconsistent 
with any other meaning than that of condition. The first 
refers to the general deluge ; the second to the eyelid being 
drawn over the eye. 

Aut mersse culmina villse navigat Ovid. 

Sails over the top of the mersed, house. 
Lamina somno mergimus Valerius Flaccus. 

We merse the eyes in sleep. 

INTUSPOSITION WITH INFLUENCE. 

Corporeasque dapes avidam demersit in alvum. . . Ovid. 

Whoever first de-mersed flesh food into his greedy belly. 
Sive virgam, sive frondem demersis, lapidem post paucos dies 

extrahis Seneca- 

A twig or leaf having been let down, you may draw it 
out, after a few days, a stone. 

DROWN. 

Tyberinus, qui in trajectu Albulse amnis submersus. Livy. 

Tyberinus, who in the passage of the . river Albula was 
submersed. 
Albula, quern Tiberini, mersus Tiberinus in undis. Fastorum. 
Albula, called Tiber, because Tiberinus was mersed in its 
waters. 
Hoc exilium est mihi instar procellse quo agitor, non sub- 
mergor. Summersus faissem, si me interemisset. 

Tristium, xi, 13 (note). 
This exile is to me like a storm by which I am tost, not 
submersed. I had been submersed, if I had perished. 
Yertere Mseonios, pelagoque immergere, nautas. . Ovid. 
Could transform the Mxonian sailors, and immerse them 
in the sea. 
Ecce super medios fluctus niger arcuo aquarum 
Frangitur : et rupt& mersum caput obruit unda. . Ovid. 
The bursting billow rolls over his mersed head. 



DESTRUCTIVE TO INANIMATE OBJECTS. 217 

Coeunt, et saxa trabesque 
Conjiciunt; mergunt que viros mergunt que carinas. Ovid. 

They hurl rocks and beams, and merse men and ships. 
Spargite me influctus, vastoque immergite ponto. . JEneid. 

Cast me into the waves, and immerse me in the deep sea. 
Spumosa unda immerserat virum JEJneid. 

The envious Triton mersed in the foaming wave the man. 
Medioque sub scquore raersit JEneid. 

What God mersed you in mid ocean ? 
Nee me Deus ajquore mersit JEneid. 

'Nor has any God mersed me in the sea. 
Doctus eris, vivam musto mersare Falerno. . Hor. Satir. 

Merse it, living, in Falernian wine. 

This common use of " mergo" to denote death by drown- 
ing, is, of itself, conclusive evidence that it cannot mean 
to dip. There is no evidence that dip, in English, tingo, 
in Latin, or ftdxT<o, in Greek, has any such usage. 



DESTRUCTIVE. 

Mersft rate, naufragus assem dum rogat. . . Juvenal. 

One shipwrecked, his vessel mersed, begs a penny. 

Unda . . . 

Nee levhis, quam siquis Athon Pindumvc rcvulsos 
Sede sua totos in apertum evcrterit sequor 
Prsccipitata ruit: pariterque et pondere et ictu, 

31ergit in ima ratem Ovid. 

The wave, not lighter than Athos or Pindus, falls headlong ; 
And equally by the weight and by the blow, merses the ship ti 
the bottom. 
Mox eadem Tcucras fuerat mcrsura carinas . . Ovid. 

Scylla would have mersed the Trojan ships. 
Pars maxima classis mergitnr. .... Lucan. 

The greatest part of the fleet is mersed. 
Quassa, tamen nostra est, nee mersa, nee obruta navis. 

Tristium. 
Our ship is shattered, but not mersed or whelmed. 



218 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

Quid navigia sarcina depressa — quo minus mergantur. 

Seneca, Nat. Qu&s. 
What hinders but that vessels, depressed by their lading, 
may be mersed. 

Again we must profoundly feel, that between such usage 
and a dipping there can be no common sympathy. 



ASSIMILATION. 

Fluvius in Euphratem mcrgitur Pliny. 

The river is mersed into the Euphrates. 

The influence of water intusposed in water is the most 
complete incorporation and assimilation; the larger body 
controlling and absorbing the lesser. 

This affords the basis for a secondary use of an important 
character. I do not know that I can point to any exem- 
plification among Latin writers ; but it is quite common, 
in English usage, in connection, not with immerse, but with 
merge. This word is employed daily in the sense expressive 
of incorporation and assimilation, but, almost, never in re- 
lation with physical elements. 

A few passages will illustrate this statement. 

" It provides for merging our Presbyteries into the Synods 
of the General Assembly. If we are to have union, let it 
be union ; but if absorption, let it be so stated." 

" The States are united, not merged." 

" The amendment merging the Minnesota with the Kansas 
bill was withdrawn." 

" I am not prepared to be merged with the Old School." 

" The banks of the Cavalla River gradually rise until 
they merge into the Gero and Pawh mountains." 

" The carriage road merges into the bridle path." 

" This is more than all the Popes, who ever lived, merged 
in one, would dare propose." 

" Merging its members in the newly created Christian 
community." 



PURIFICATION. 219 

" Her evening sun set, merged, at length, with joy in the 
endless life of heaven." 

" The meeting will continue until 12 o'clock, and will, 
then, be merged into the prayer meeting." 

" I may transgress the limits of propriety, and merge the 
pulpit in the rostrum." 

" An ordinance to merge the department of the market- 
houses into that of the city property." 

" Christians cannot 'merge themselves in the world, and 
yet live above the world." 

" In the year 1457, the distinctive existence of the Tab- 
orite3 was merged in the Society of the Bohemian Brother- 
hood." 

This usage is grounded in the controlling influence 
represented in merge The special form which that influ.- 
ence takes, in the present case, is that of absorption and 
assimilation. There is not mere mersion, but unification. 
Merge, in its ordinary English use, cannot translate ^ar.ri^u). 



PURIFICATION. 

Hsec sanctd utposcas, Tiberino in gurgite niergis 
Mane caput bis terque, et noctem flumine purgas. Perseus. 
That thou mayest ask these things purely, merse thy head 
In the river Tiber, twice and thrice, in the morning, and thus 
purge the night by the stream. 

"Whether it be thought justifiable, or not, to say that 
" mergo," here, does, directly, signify to purify, it is cer- 
tain that the end sought is purification. When Tiberinus 
was "mersed" in the Tiber he was drowned; and "mergo," 
as used by both Livy and Ovid to describe the fact, has 
this direct force — to drown. It would be unavoidable, but 
that the word, commonly used to describe similar occur- 
rences, would secure to itself the power to express directly 
what originally was expressed, only, indirectly. In like 
manner, " mergo," used, daily, to express the development 



220 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

of a purifying influence by mersion, would, unavoidably, 
come to represent that influence, and not merely the in- 
tusposition procurative of it. 

Thus, in the natural development of language, "mersus 
homo" might represent " a purified man;" because — 1. He 
had been actually mersed in his whole body, and thus had 
received a fully developed purifying influence. 2. Because 
his " head" had been actua'ly mersed, and thus the purify- 
ing influence had been received by the entire body. And, 
3. Because complete purification had been received in 
some other way than by mersion, in whole or in part, 
whether by sacrifice, by fire, or by sprinkled water. 

To say that a man thoroughly purified- by sprinkled water 
may not be called u mersus homo," on the ground that 
" mersus" means immersed, is to "kick against the pricks," 
sharp and innumerable, projecting through all the history 
of language. The purifying power was in the water of 
the Tiber, and that power was not limited, in its develop- 
ment, to a state of mersion, but was equally secured by 
sprinkling. 

Bis caput intonsum fontana spargitur unda 



Ter caput irrorat, ter tollit ad gethera palmas. Fast. 4. 

Twice his unshorn head is sprinkled with spring, water. 



Thrice he sprinkles his head, thrice he lifts his hands to 
heaven. 

No one will question that this sprinkling induced con- 
dition of purification ; no one (I will venture to presume, 
until. advertised of the contrary) will question that "mer- 
sus" may denote a condition of purification (or any other 
condition), where no actual mersion has taken place; 
therefore, it is beyond all denial that " mersus homo" may 
represent, not the act of sprinkling, but a man who has been 
purified by sprinkling. 

I do not say that, in the passage before us, mergo means 
to purify, although Perseus employs pur go to express its 



PURIFICATION. 221 

import alone, or that of the phrase of which it is a mem- 
ber, and the " interpretation" substitutes lavo for it. It is 
sufficient for my present purpose to establish an unques- 
tionable possible use. Mergo used to develop a thoroughly 
purifying influence for its object by intusposition in river 
water, may, most legitimately, be used to express such 
purification in whatsoever way effected. 

In reference to a resemblance between this mersion of 
the head, and a dipping, I would remark: 1. The distinc- 
tion established between these words precludes their con- 
fusion here. 2. Any object mersed, and resting, most 
briefly, in that condition, for the sake of the influence of 
such condition, deprives it of the character of a mere dip- 
ping. 3. With the facts before us, it is madness to make 
mergo mean to dip. 4. Such usage of mergo brings it into 
fellowship, not with the primary meaning to dip, but with 
the secondary meaning to dye, and its extension to the 
communication of quality without color. This mersion 
was for the purpose of securing the quality of purification. 
As dipping sometimes took place for the sake of dyeing, 
and then ceased to mean to dip; and dyeing was effected 
by sprinkling, or in any way; so, mersion for purification 
ceases to mean to intuspose, and becomes to purify in 
any way. 5. The extent and mode of applying an element 
capable of producing a purification is purely arbitrary, and, 
in fact, endlessly varied. Whether the whole body be 
mersed, or the head or hands only; whether the whole 
body be poured upon or sprinkled; or whether the ex- 
tremity of the lips only be touched ; the purified one be- 
comes equally a "mersus homo." Mersus in such case, 
of course, referring not to the manner in which the puri- 
fying element has been used, whether by mersion or 
sprinkling, but to the condition of purity induced. The 
following quotation is illustrative: "Let him first sip 
water thrice; then twice wipe his mouth; and lastly touch 
with water the six cavities before mentioned, his breast 
and his head. lie who knows the law and seeks purity, 
will ever perform his ablution with the pure part of his 



222 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

hand, and with water neither hot nor frothy, standing in a 
lonely place, and turning to the east or north. 

" A Brahmin i3 purified by water that reaches his bosom; 
a Cschatriga by water descending to his throat; a Vaisya 
by water barely taken into his mouth; a Sudra by water 
touched with the extremity of his lips." — Institutes of 
Manu, Gr. Ch. Haughton, London, p. 29. 

Purifying water " touching the lips" constitutes an ab- 
lution, and makes a " mersus homo." 



FIGURE. 

Nescit quid perdat, et alto 
Demersus, summa rursum non bullit in unda. . Perseus. 
Demersed in the de.ep, he never again emerges. 

Kimia facilitate in voluptates mergi. . . . Curtius. 
Mersed into pleasures by too great wealth. 

Mersor fortunse fluctibus Catullus. 

Mersed by the billows of fortune. 
Mersor civilibus undis Hor. Epist. 

Mersed by political waves. 

These passages exhibit figurative use, in contradistinc- 
tion from that simply tropical, turned or secondary nse, 
by which words of original physical application are so far 
modified in meaning as to adapt them to express ideas 
growing out of relations not physical. Perseus, clearly, 
has a picture in his mind which he presents for us to look 
at. The debased man of whom he speaks is not merely 
represented as " demersed" — in this there would not be, 
necessarily, any figure — but he adds, "in the deep," which 
would be very tame of itself; but when he adds, "he 
never bubbles to the surface," the picture is spirited and 
complete. 

The passage from Curtius is most worthy of special 
attention. Had this writer simply said, " nimia facultate 
mergi," it would have been a merely prosaic statement 
expressive of the controlling influence of excessive wealth; 



FIGURE. 223 

but by the addition, "in roluptates," he converts it into 
figure, and shows that he does not mean merely to speak 
of influence, bat of influence exerted in a certain direc- 
tion, and to indicate that specific form he introduces a 
figurative element, namely, "pleasures." 

It is very rarely that, the accusative, representing the 
element, is thus introduced either in the Greek or in the 
Latin. The reason, I suppose, is, because in the secondary 
use there is no design to speak in figure; and because the 
character of the influence can be gathered, usually, with 
sufficient accuracy from the subject-matter of discourse. 
Still, it is manifest that the greatest possible precision is 
given by the use of this form of speech, and, sometimes, 
(as in referring to an influence wholly new or imperfectly 
understood) it might be essentially necessary to employ it. 

Had one stood on the banks of the Tiber while purifica- 
tion was sought by mersing the head, and thrice sprinkling 
its waters, and proclaimed the insufficiency of purification 
so secured ; and the necessity of mersion by repentance ; 
some vague idea, and only a vague idea, might have been 
received as to the effect of a Repentance Mersion compared 
with a Tiber Mersion ; but if mersion by repentance into 
the remission of sins is proclaimed, then the thought is stated 
with absolute definiteness, and becomes flooded with light. 
So, "mersion by wealth" is an indefinite statement; while 
'mersion by wealth into pleasures" gives form and feature 
to the thought. The former phrase is sufficient for things 
with whose nature and influential effects we are familiar; 
the latter is necessary in speaking of things unfamiliar and 
for rhetorical effect. 

In the last two passages, the use of "fluctibus" and 
" undis " determines the picture character of the thought 
in the minds of the writers. And it may be well to say, 
particularly, that these words, although representing a 
fluid element, do not represent the element in which, but 
the means by which the mersion takes place. This is con- 
clusively shown by the passage of Ovid, which expressly 
declares that it was "pondere et ictu" of the wave that 



224 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

the vessel was mersed " in ima" So in " nimia facultate 
in voluptates," the instrumental means is represented by 
its appropriate case. And, in general, it should be under- 
stood that the ablative, in all cases of innuence-mersion, 
represents the agency by which, and not the element in 
which, the mersion takes place. 



SECOKDAKY USE. 
INFLUENCE WITHOUT INTUSPOSITION. 

Sed me fata me his mersere malis. . . JEneid. 

The fates have mersed me by these evils. 

Abstulit atra dies, et funere mersit acerbo. . . JEneid. 

Death has snatched away, and mersed with a bitter end. 

Aut qusB forma viros fortunave mersit. . . JEneid. 

What form or fortune has mersed the men ? 

Et mersis fer opem mitissima rebus. . . . Ovid. 
O most Benign ! bring help to our mersed affairs. 

Ab Jove mersa suo Stygias penitrarit in undas. . Ovid. 

Mersed by her Jove shall go down to the Stygian waters. 

Afier opem, mersseque precor 'feritate paterna. . Ovid. 
Help ! and receive me mersed by paternal cruelty. 

Berum copia mersat Lucretius. 

Abundance of things merses. 

Qui peritissime censum domini mergit. . . Pliny. 

Who most cunningly merses the estate of his master. 

Mersus foro Plautus. 

Mersed by debt. 

Mersus rebus secundis, Alexander. 

Alexander mersed by prosperity. 

Mersus vino, somnoque. 

Mersed by wine and sleep. 



Potatio quae mergit. 

The drink which merses. 



Livy. 
Livy. 
Seneca. 



INFLUENCE WITHOUT INTUSPOSITION. 225 

Virum gravem, moderatum, sed mcrsum vino, et madcntem. 

Seneca. 

A man grave, moderate, bat mersed and icct with wine. 

Mergere aliqucm ad Styga Seneca. 

Merse any one to the Styx. 
Et Cosmi toto nicrgatur abeno. .... Juvenal. 

Jlerscd by the whole unguent vase of Cosmus. 
Mergit longa, atquc insignis honorum pagina. . . Juvenal. 

A long and eminent record of honors merses. 
Ut nicdiocris jacturae tc mcrgat onus. . . . Juvenal. 

That the burden of a moderate loss should merse thee. 
Scu rorc pudico 
Castaliso flavos amor est tibi mcrgcre crines. Statius, Thebais. 

To merse thy yellow locks in the pure dew of Castalia. 

It is unnecessary to comment on each of these passages. 
The point to be established is, that mcrcjo (placing originally 
its object in a position 'where it is exposed to physical in- 
fluence in the fullest degree) comes to represent a condi- 
tion which is the result of some controlling influence inde- 
pendent of i^osition. 

Two or three clear cases will sufficiently illustrate this 
point. 

" 0, most Benign ! bring help to our mersed affairs." 

This is the prayer of Deucalion and Pyrrha, after the 
subsidence of the general deluge, addressed to Thcmic; : 
"Declare, Themis! by what means the ruin of our race 
may be repaired, and bring help, most Benign ! to our 
mersed affairs." 

The prayer was not for a rescue of human affairs under 
deluge waters; that condition had been, but was now 
passed away. Human affairs arc in a "ruined" condition, 
which is expressed by " mersed," and from this condition 
deliverance is solicited. 

The meaning of " rebus mersis" in this passage admits 
of but one possible interpretation in the connection in 
which it stands. But not indicating any specific form of 
influence, only controlling influence of some kind, there 

15 



226 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

would oftentimes be a necessity for the introduction of 
some expounding words. Thus, " sere paterno ac rebus 
mersis in ventrem foenoris." — Juvenal, xi, 40. "Patrimony 
and property mersed into the gulf of usury." " Rebus 
mersis," here needed some explaining word, and it is fur- 
nished by " in ventrem foenoris." 

" Mersed by debt" — " that the burden of a moderate 
loss should merse you." Such phrases express, directly, a 
ruinous influence. To reach this by a voyage at sea and 
the foundering of a ship, is, at the best, sailing round the 
world to arrive at a point one pace behind you. 

" Mersed to the Styx," is a phrase perfectly explicit, 
although the word is used absolutely, because the men- 
tion of " the Styx" makes but one interpretation possible. 
Mergo, here, expresses a condition of death effected by 
some controlling influence not mentioned, and which may 
be from anything, and in any form competent to cause 
death. 

This is shown by a parallel passage quoted. 

" Mersed by her Jove shall go down to the Stygian 
waters." 

Some, not particularly conversant with the facts of the 
case, might fancy to translate, " She shall go down into the 
waters of Styx and be immersed by her friend Jove." 
And this translation might be very manfully defended by 
triumphantly asking: 1. "Was not 'the Styx' a river, 
and is there not water enough in a river for immersion f 2. 
Does not 'penetro' mean to penetrate, to go into, and what 
would any one go into a river for except to be immersed? 
3. Does not 'in' (above all, 'in' with the accusative of a 
fluid element) denote movement, and what can ' in unclas ' 
mean but into the water f 4. And to crown all, does not 
mergo mean 'to dip'? Have we not, then, the most ex- 
press statement of immersion, the denial of which shows, 
'not the want of light, but of Christian honesty'? 5. If 
assurance could go farther, is it not found in the declara- 
tion that there was an immerser present to do the work ? 



INFLUENCE WITHOUT INTUSPOSITION. 227 

What, then, is lacking in this overwhelming, concentrated 
evidence — ' River' — ' entering' — * into' — ' immersed' — 
'immerser?' Surely nothing; the case is made out." 

JSTow, I frankly confess that if I knew no more about 
the actual facts of this ease than I do about the absolute 
facts of some other cases from which this reasoning is a 
transcript, I could say nothing more to disturb the com- 
placent convictions expressed respecting the " immersion" 
of Semele into the Styx by her special friend, than I could 
in such other cases. I must in all honesty confess to the 
Styx being "a river;" to ^enctro meaning "to enter;" to 
in meaning "into;" to mcrgo meaning "to mcrsc;" and to 
Jove being quite competent to act as "immerscr;" but, 
after all, there is still one difficulty in the way of Semele's 
immersion in the river by her friend, and that is just 
this, — he did no such tiling, but killed her by his thunderbolts ! 
And, now, with this historical help we review our transla- 
tions, and find that the Styx may remain a river still, with- 
out anybody being dipped into it; that "pcnetro"may 
carry down very far, indeed, without carrying into the 
water; that "in" may mean to even with " undas;" that 
" mcrgo" may express a condition of death by a thunder- 
bolt, as well as a condition of death by drowning; and 
both, as well as a simple intusposition without any deadly 
consequence following; and that Jove may be an " im- 
merser" without dipping into water. I do not know that 
this case will cause any misgiving as to the reasoning so 
earnestly urged by Baptist brethren in other cases; but 
if it should, I have no doubt of there being quite enough 
of " Christian honesty" on their part (whatever may be 
true of others) to make all due acknowledgment. Very 
sure am I, that whenever the historical facts in those cases 
shall be fully revealed, that they will show that the actual 
baptism conferred in those rivers was no more like that 
immersion in water contended for, than was the actual 
thunderbolt immersion of Semele like to her, translctiion- 
proucd, immersion into the Styx! In the JEneid, iv, 25, is 
a parallel passage, the "thunderbolt" expressed, and the 



228 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

mersion implied — " Vel Pater omnipotens adigat me ful- 
mine ad umbras." 

" A long and eminent record of honors merses." 

How far removed from a water mersion is a statement 
like this. 

" Mergo" does not necessarily express a condition re- 
sultant from a destructive influence, but this is the ordi- 
nary result of physical mersion; therefore, when applied, 
without qualification, to cases where physics are not in- 
volved, we must understand that a destructive influence 
is designed. 

This is the ease here. Juvenal declares that, under cer- 
tain circumstances, "honors merse" — bring ruin. They 
do so by awakening envy, jealousy, and hate on the part 
of others, or by begetting self-esteem, pride, and ambition, 
on the part of the possessor; thus a condition of shame, 
suffering, and ruin is induced, well described as a mersion 
by influence, but poorly expounded by insisting on a de- 
sign to picture an intusposition in water. 

Potatio ejuse mergit Seneca. 

The drink which merses* 
Mersus vino somnoque Livy. 

Mersed by wine and sleep. 

These passages are closely parallel, and afford a good 
opportunity to speak of the importance of discriminating, 
in eases of mersion, between the agency effecting the 
mersion and the element in which the mersion actually, 
or (in figure) supposedly, takes place ; as, also, of the ad- 
vanced usage which first obliterates figure and shadow, 
establishing a general, secondary meaning, and then, by 
frequent use, a specific meaning. 

The passage from Seneca presents the agency in the 
nominative, and so precludes all question as to its charac- 
ter. I ought to state that I have not seen this passage in 
its connection, and cannot vouch for its literal correctness ; 



INFLUENCE WITHOUT INTUSPOSITION. 229 

but whether there, or elsewhere, the phrase serves equally 
well for comment.* 

The " potation," or drink, is declared to be causative 
of the mcrsion. Now, it is a physical impossibility that 
anything drunk should produce a physical mersion of the 
drinker. Such a result is, then, out of the question. But 
mcrsion by figure is no less out of question, so far as 
the drink is sought to be made the clement in which the 
mersion is figuratively to take place. If the mcrsion, by 
figure, of c,, a lake into the blood of a mouse," is an intoler- 
able perversion of taste, how much better is that which 
would figure a man mersed into the tluid which fills his 
mouth or stomach? If some other sort of figure is sought 
for, as " into drunkenness," "into insensibility," I admit 
that such figure mav be used for the sake of definiteness 
of thought, or for giving special force to the expression; 
but deny the necessity for, or the propriety of, any such 
thin^ in the case before us. 1. There is no need for 
" definiteness." 'No one who reads this phrase but what 
understands, at once, that an intoxicatmg drink is intended. 
2. There is no need for force. The phrase is one of con- 
centrated energy. There is a power of fact in the utter- 
ance which tramples figure under foot, and goes straight 
forward to its end. It declares something which " pota- 
tion" does substantially, not figures shadowly. And what 
does " potation" of an intoxicating liquor do ? Why, it makes 
drunk. Then that is what Seneca declares, throwing aside 
physical intusposition, and figurative intusposition, and 
passing beyond general controlling influence, lie gives in- 
dividuality, body, and shape to that influence in the nerv- 

* On examination I find the following passage: " Aliquando vectatio 
iterquc, et mutata regio, vigorem dabunt, convictusque et liberalior potio ; 
nonnunquam et usque ad ebrietatem veniendum, non ut mergat nos sed ut 
deprimat. ; ' De tranquililate animi. This is the passage, I presume, which 
is intended to be presented, in a condensed form, in " Potatio quce tnergit." 
"Not that it may merse us, hut depress cares." Has depress, express, 
impress, oppress, suppress, no secondary meaning? Seneca says: " Bac- 
chus is called Liber because he liberates the mind from the slavery of 
cares." 



230 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

ous statement — " The Drink which makes drunk." " Potatio" 
necessitates such coloring to the thought. We have, then, 
a mersion by a fluid without being in that fluid, or in any 
other, but effected by drinking a pint or a quart, thus ex- 
ercising over the drinker a controlling, intoxicating power. 
Seneca elsewhere says : " Ubi possedit animum nimia vis 
vini, quicquid mali latebat emergit." This shows that wine 
mersion is not, with Seneca, a dipping or sinking, but a 
nimia vis vini — a controlling influence of wine. 

In the passage from Livy, as the ablative is used in 
expressing the agency, occasion has been taken to convert 
the agency of the mersion into the element of mersion. 

Does any one doubt that " wine and sleep" were the 
agencies in this mersion ? Does any one doubt the essen- 
tial difference between the agency effecting a mersion, 
and the element in which the mersion of the object takes 
place? If these things are beyond controversy, why, then, 
confound the agency and the element by contending for a 
" mersion in wine and sleep ?" How is such mersion con- 
ceivable ? Are " wine and sleep" to be conceived of as 
mingled together, and so constituting a joint bath? Or, 
is there to be a mersion, first into the one, and then into 
the other? These questions must be met. Difficulties 
must not be covered up by vague talk of figure. 

Interpret according to the facts, making " wine and 
sleep" agencies, and all runs smoothly. They, by their 
conjoint influence, exercise a controlling influence of ac- 
cumulated power, which is described in the strongest 
language by terming it a mersive influence. 

Those who contend for figure here, and to effect it turn 
" wine and sleep" into a nondescript clement, appeal for 
support to JEneid ii, 265: " Invadunt urban somno vinoque 
sepultam" The appeal brings no valuable aid. " Sepelio" 
is modified in its usage just as mergo and scores of other 
words are. We say of an unsuccessful politician, " he is 
dead and buried;" do we mean by this to picture a grave- 
yard, pit, coffin, and shrouded corpse, with incasted earth? 
Or, do we mean to express simply that his hopes and 



INFLUENCE WITHOUT INTUSPOSITION. 231 

efforts for advancement are utterly futile? Besides, how 
can a city be "buried in both sleep and wine?" Is not one 
entombment sufficient? Virgil utters no such figurative 
absurdity. He expresses no figure in which tombs, inti- 
tuled "wine," "sleep," filled with the corpses of a city, 
are pictured. He does declare that the conjoined in- 
fluence of sleep and wine induces such profound stupor 
that all the noise of an invading army cannot break it. 

Virgil speaks of another burial, JEneid, vi, 424, " Occu- 
pat JEncas aditum custode scpulto" How was this "burial" 
effected ? A medicated cake is thrown to the dog Cerberus, 
under the soporific influence of which he comes by eating, 
and is " buried;" as the Trojans came under the intoxicat- 
ing influence of wine by drinking, and were "buried." But 
how was he "buried"? Why, by being poured out on the 
ground ("fusus humi"), if we may credit those interpreters 
who insist on "one meaning -through an entire language." 
An odd sort of burial, to be sure; yet, this was all the 
burial that the three-headed sentinel received. 

Suppose, now, we stood by the side of ^Eneas, and 
looked down upon that monster, stretched out through 
the whole length of the cave; how much of a "burial" 
would we suppose to be in " sepultus," or even in " sepul- 
tus in somno," as applied to that unentombed object? 

Take another case : JEneid, iii, 630, " Nam simul expletus 
dapibiiSy vinoque sepidtus." "Burial in wine" is a strange 
sort of a figure. Wine is "the drink which merses" — 
buries; not the element in which mersion or burial takes 
place. Picture-figure here fails. Influence is the only and 
most sufficient source of explanation. If confirmation were 
needed, it is found in another parallel passage: " JRutuli 
somno vinoque soluti" ix, 236. 

Now, suppose we press on this language, as is done in 
the other cases, and insist that as "solvo" means to dis- 
solve, so, " sleep and wine" are figured as liquids in lohich 
the Butuli are placed to be "dissolved"! There is as 
much good sense in this as making "sleep and wine," in 
the other cases, sepulchres. But few will urge such picture- 



232 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

figure; but if they cannot in the one case, they may not 
in the other. In all such cases, mcrgo, sepelio, solvo, are 
used to exhibit the development of strong influence; each 
one with its peculiar shade of thought. " Sleep and wine," 
both, induce great relaxation of the muscular system, and 
therein is the ground of the use of " solvo ;" and a relaxed 
body " stretched at great length on the ground," is like 
water " poured along;'* therefore, the application of "fusus" 
to Cerberus. " Wine and sleep" are influential agencies in 
relaxing the limbs of the Eutuli, and not a mixture in 
which they are " dissolved." 

I only add, that the translation u in wine and sleep," 
does not secure a figurative mersion or burial. Picturing 
is still excluded, and influence remains sovereign. We 
say a man drunk is " in liquor;" do we mean to utter 
figure, or to express influence? 

Pope describes one of his Dunciad heroes thus: 

11 Where Bentley late tempestuous wont to sport 
In troubled waters, but now sleeps in Port." 

His annotator remarks: "A certain wine called Port, 
from Oporto, a city of Portugal, of which this Professor 
invited him to drink abundantly." 

Now, shall we be told that the poet does, here, "by an 
elegant figure," put Mr. Bentley to sleep "m" a cask of 
Port wine? Does — " in troubled waters" — merse or bury 
in water? What shall be said of criticism which tears 
words out of organic phrases, and by them conjures up 
such " elegant figures"? Stones, in a heap, may be han- 
dled and treated disjunctly; but when builded into an 
arch, they can only be treated in their relations to each 
other, unless our purpose be destruction. Words, in com- 
bination, have a common life, which perishes when they 
are torn asunder. 

While Livy and Virgil speak of the controlling influence, 
conjointly exercised, of wine and sleep, Seneca speaks of 
the specific power of wine to intoxicate. 



CONCLUSIONS FROM USAGE. 233 

CONCLUSIONS FROM USAGE. 

1. Mergo represents no definite form of action ; is, alike, 
indifferent to the movement of the object or the clement; 
is equally competent to take a world or a grain of sand for 
its object; makes no limit of time; puts no bounds to 
force ; establishes no modes of action ; claims intusposition 
for its object, and securing that has performed its duty, 
and ceases its functions in primary relations. 

2. Secondarily: Mergo represents a condition which is 
the result of some controlling influence; the nature of the 
condition being limited and determined, only, by the 
nature of the influence, extending through the wide range 
of purification by sprinkled water-drops, to death by flam- 
ing thunderbolts. 

3. Absolutely: Mergo represents influence destructive in 
character. 

4. Appropriation: Mergo means to drown, to make drunk. 
Facts, in this direction, were of constant occurrence, and 
daily use would stamp specific meaning. Fitness to ex- 
press the meaning to purify is equally good; but evidence 
for such usage, in fact, is not so strong. 

5. With peculiarities of usage, such as must occur, the 
general features of usage in mergo and immerse are in 
the most perfect harmony, rather are identical. 

6. The characteristics of mergo are in strongest contrast 
with those offidxrat, tingo, and dip. If a defiled man seeking 
purification is commanded to merse his head for this purpose 
in purifying water, and, its influence having been secured, 
takes it out again, mergo makes no complaint because he 
did not keep it there until another influence of the water, 
drowning, was secured. If any one should be pleased to 
say, because of this mode of securing the controlling in- 
fluence of purifying water, that mergo and dip mean the 
same thing, he must hold controversy, not with me, but 
with common sense, with the old Romans, and with the 
masters in English. 



234 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 



BAI1TIZQ. 

WHAT DOES IT MEAN? 

We pursue our inquiry, guided by, and submissive to, 
the Horatian law, 

" Usus 
Quern penes arbitrium est, et jus, et norma loquendi. ,> 

In doing this, I stand before the same tribunal with Dr. 
Carson, who says : " I have appealed to a higher tribunal 
than the authority of all critics — to use itself" 

" Truth is on every man's side." Then, this utterance, 
faithfully interpreted, will not be adverse to any of us, 
whatever it may be. 

May we seek, with all docility, the guidance of the 
Spirit of Truth, that we may be " led by Him into all 
truth" necessary for our good, and promotive of the glory 
of His Name ! 

Whatever of time or labor may have been demanded to 
pass over the preceding discussion, few, I hope, will con- 
sider the one or the other wastefully expended in view 
of the vantage-ground which has been thus, and could 
only thus have been, secured for a discriminating and 
authoritative determination of this long-debated word. ' 

The words examined clearly belong to two distinct 
classes. Each class has its own deeply marked and broadly 
distinguishing characteristics. And may we not affirm, as 
a point beyond controversy, that no word can belong to both 
these classes ? 

If, now, the word which we are about to examine be- 
longs to either class, its usage cannot be ambiguous, nor 
leave a shadow of doubt as to the class to which it must 
be attached. Its classification having been determined, its 
development, under the exigencies of language, must be 
assumed to be in harmony with its original nature. 



PRIMARY USE. 235 

USAGE OP BAIITIza. 

INTUSPOSITION WITHOUT INFLUENCE. 
PRIMARY USE. 

1. "Ous ozav fdv a/ixajr'.c tj [rq jSa-ri^sffOac. 

Aristotle, Wonderful Reports. 

2. 'Apdimmdv re xaO y udatp (peXXbv. Archias, Epigr. x. 

3. 'EpdTxu? ei$ rdv ohov. Julian, Egypt. Cupid, p. 223. 

4. Ouv ld6vre<; ob pa.-riZoij.hovq. Lucian, True History, ii, 4. 

5. 'Es'Qzeaatoto fidou pcurriZero Tizfy. Orphei, Argonautica, 512. 

6. 'Efiftaimeftivas rdiq rilixaavj. Plutarch, Sylla, xxi. 

7. 'Atrxoq pairciZy. Plutarch, Theseus, xxiv. 

8. a Eio$ ra» fj.a<j7ajv ol-z^o). parrrt£6fievot. Polybius, hi, 72, 4. 

9. Ba-rtZo/i&ou rod dpuhoo [idpzt. PolybillS, xxxiv, 3, 7. 

10. Ba-zferat. /j.e/pi xscpaXrjq. Porphyry, Abstinence, p. 282. 

11. "Sore ftoXtg fia-rCZsffOau. Strabo, xii, 2, 4. 

12. Miypi 6i±<pa\oo fia—t'o/iivojv. Strabo, xiv, 3, 9. 

MERSION WITHOUT INFLUENCE. 
PRIMARY USE. 

1. Which when it is ebb tide are not mersed — (sea-coast). 

2. And cork immersed by water — (fishing-net). 

3. I mersed him into the wine — (Cupid). 

4. Seeing them not mersed — (men with cork feet). 

5. The sun mersed himself into the ocean flood. 

6. Mersed in the marshes — (armor). 

7. A bladder, thou may est be mersed; but there is no decree 

for thee to sink. 

8. The infantry being mersed up to the breasts. 

9. The oak (fishing-spear) being mersed by the weight. 

10. He is mersed to the head. 

11. So that it is hardly mersed — (dart). 

12. Being mersed to the waist. 



236 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 



GENERAL REMARKS. 



1. Such cases of usage present a favorable opportunity 
for determining the meaning, inasmuch as there are no 
complications arising from influence exerted by the mcr- 
sion over the object. I have given all the cases of this 
class with which I have met. 

2. There is no semblance, in any one of these cases, of 
the meaning to dip. Cupid is put into the wine without 
being taken out. He is swallowed by the drinker. 

3. There is as little semblance of any other modal act 
being the exponent of the Greek word, since a variety of 
modal acts, entirely distinct in character — flowing, sink- 
ing, in-putting, falling, throwing, walking — do equally 
well, and with equal authority perform the baptism. 

4. No exposition can meet the facts of the case which 
does not remove paitri'v from the class of verbs expressive 
of modality in action (whether general or particular), and 
place it among those which, immediately, demand condi- 
tion, leaving the form and character of the act securing 
that condition unexpressed and uncared for. 

5. BarMlm has no alliance with /Ja-rcy, tingo, and dip. It is 
in most intimate accord with mergo and merse. 

PARTICULAR CASES. 

"1." " They say that the Phoenicians inhabiting the re- 
gion called Gadira, sailing beyond the Pillars of Hercules, 
with an easterly wind, four days, reach to certain desert 
places full of rush and seaweed; which when it is ebb tide 
are not mersed; but when it is full tide are flooded." 

Aristotle. 

The tidal movement of the Atlantic may have furnished 
a theme for " Wonderful Report" to the Greeks of Aris- 



SEA-COAST BAPTISM. 237 

totle's clay y but it has long since ceased to be classed 
among "wonders." 

The baptism which took place under the operation of 
the tidal wave, we understand, in all its features, as well 
as if we had formed a portion of the Phoenician party. 
The modus of the baptism, as to the act done, is settled 
beyond controversy. This is of the first importance. 
Whenever the mode of baptism is not expressly stated, 
our Baptist friends place their back against the word, and 
make battle, d Voutrcmce, for "one meaning through all 
Greek literature," and that meaning — " dip, and nothing 
but dip." And even here, where it is admitted that the 
modal act, as declared,, is the very antipodal of dip, the 
great controversialist strenuously affirms that it is only, 
after all, a more beautiful way of saying dip! But while 
Carson is bold enough to vindicate the Baptist dogma 
by the audacious transmutation of water flowing over an 
object, into the dipping of an object into water, others, 
who love the Baptist system as dearly as himself, are un- 
willing to follow where they see common sense so hope- 
lessly wrecked. Still, even these decline to acknowledge 
that they have misunderstood the force of the word, and 
evade the force of the staggering blow, received by their 
system, by slipping in a word to which is assigned, in 
exigencies, a double role ; and pass on from the sea-coast 
to other scenes of baptism, where "dip" can once more, 
with some greater show of plausibility, be brought to the 
foreground. 

It will be instructive to look with some particularity at 
the manner in which leading Baptist writers treat this 
baptism, all of whose elements are thoroughly understood, 
and without question from any quarter, seeing that it does, 
on its face, crush the Baptist doctrine as to the meaning 
of /9a-T£'>. 

(1.) The following shows the deep impression, half ac- 
cepted, half rejected, made by the case on Dr. Gale : " Ba—L 
ZzaOat being used, here, to signify the land was under water, 
by the water's coming in upon it, and not by its being put 



238 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

into the water, some, perhaps, may think it a considera- 
ble objection ; but it will be found of no advantage to our 
adversaries, if it be observed, that it here necessarily and 
unavoidably imports to be under water, or to be over- 
whelmed or covered with water; and this being the plain 
sense of this place, 'tis natural enough to say, as it were, 
or in a manner, or some such expression is to be under- 
stood. Besides, the word fiaxzi^w, perhaps, does not so 
necessarily express the action of putting under water, as, 
in general, a thing's being in that condition, no matter 
how it comes so, whether it is put into the water, or the 
water comes over it; tho' indeed to put into water is the 
most natural way and the most common, and is, therefore, 
usually and pretty constantly, but it may be not necessarily 
required." — pp. 116, 117. 

If this tidal wave did not carry the learned Gale high 
up on the shores of truth, it certainly did bring him very 
near to its " coasts," and he has, thence, brought back a 
very " Wonderful Report" to his Baptist brethren. He 
tells them, that the " sea-coasts, west of the Pillars of Her- 
cules, have quite unsettled his notion as to the meaning 
of poKTiZut. It sometimes, certainly, means one thing, and, 
perhaps, pretty constantly, means something quite the 
contrary, but what it does really mean he will not under- 
take to say." 

In this " report" there is much of honesty, and no little 
of naivete. 

(2.) Dr. Carson has visited this same spot to inquire into 
this famous classical baptism ; let us hear what he has to 
say in relation to it. 

" Now, though the water comes over the land, and there 
is no actual exemplification of the mode expressed by this 
word, yet it still expresses that mode ; and the word has 
been employed for the very purpose of expressing it. The 
peculiar beauty of the expression consists in figuring the 
object, which is successively bare and buried under water, 
as being dipped when it is covered, and as emerging when 
it is bare." 



SEA-COAST BAPTISM. 239 

This is a very imperial, not to say a very empirical, mode 
of disposing of Aristotle's contradiction of the Baptist ex- 
position of a Greek word. Dr. Gale modestly confesses 
that Aristotle's use of the word, so different from his own 
understanding of it, clouds the meaning. Dr. Carson says, 
it illuminates the meaning with all the effulgence of poetry 
and rhetoric. Dr. Gale once ventured to sport with figure 
and rhetoric, on a large scale, and " dipped a lake into 
the blood of a frog." For this he was roundly chidden by 
Carson, who declared that " there never was such a figure," 
and pronounced it to be "a paradox in rhetoric." It is 
now Gale's turn to rehearse in his teacher's ear the lesson 
which he received, and to inquire, " on what page of Rhet- 
oric, or of the beauties of Poetry, we are to look for an 
indorsement of 'the peculiar beauty in figuring' the sea- 
coast as picked up and dipped iuto the rising tide?" 
"Without waiting for an answer to this inquiry, I would 
remark, that " the peculiar beauty" of this figure is sadly 
marred by its being "lame of a leg." "Dip" requires 
both that its object should be put into and taken out of 
the water, or, to use the Doctor's language, be " buried 
and bare;" but unfortunately this was not Aristotle's no- 
tion of the meaning of iSo-tCUo, as he has employed it to 
express one of these conditions only, and used another 
word to express the other. Dr. Carson, therefore, in con- 
verting this very prosaic narrative into poetry, and making 
j3a-T{':<o officiate as a dipper, can furnish him with but one 
leg to stand upon. 

The transformation of "flowing over" into dipping into, 
is farther vindicated, thus: " Common conversation exem- 
plifies this mode of expression every day ; and mere chil- 
dren understand its import. When a person has been 
drenched with rain, he will say that he has got a dipping. 
Here dipping does not lose its modal import, but immedi- 
ately suggests it to the mind, and intends to suggest it. 
But were the English language one of the dead languages, 
and this expression subjected to learned criticism, it would 



240 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

be alleged that the word dipping does not denote mode, 
but wetting without reference to mode." 

Dr. Carson is not more happy in expounding the second- 
ary use of dip (supposing it to have such use as he indi- 
cates), than in pointing out the rhetorical beauty of clipping 
the sea-coast by the rise and fall of the tide. 

The word "dipping" I have never heard used in the 
connection stated ; but ducking (an equivalent word), I 
have. " He was caught in the rain and got a ducking," 
is a phrase in familiar use. But it is amusing to hear 
Dr. Carson say that the children (whether of smaller or 
larger growth) who use such language "design" to give 
utterance to highly wrought rhetorical figure, " the pecu- 
liar beauty of which consists in figuring the object as suc- 
cessively bare and buried under water." Is it not marvel- 
lous that any one should think of affirming that a child 
who speaks of " having got a ducking in a shower," means 
to flash before his playmates' imagination a picture in 
which he is seen to go under and come out of the water 
of a mill-pond, or the like ! There is, now, before my eye 
an account of some boys who held one of their companions 
under the pump, while others " ducked" him by pumping 
water upon him. Is this, too, an elegantly rhetorical use of 
language representing the object as successively " bare and 
buried"? In the sea-coast baptism there is a "bare and 
buried;" but where is it found in the shower dipping, or 
the pump ducking f And in the coast baptism there is no 
basis for such figure, because the twain are not one; but 
each is designated by an independent word. 

Before " the English language is numbered with the 
dead" and given over to "learned criticism," I wish to 
say, that both "clipping" and " ducking," as thus popu- 
larly used, do mean, and can mean, nothing else, than 
simply wetting without reference to mode. When Walter 
Scott says, "the boat received the shower of brine which 
the animal spouted aloft, and Triptolemus had a full share 
of the immersion," the use of " shower," and " full share," 
precludes the idea of " design" to express " one mode of 



SEA-COAST BAPTISM. 241 

action by another mode of action" in employing "im- 
mersion." There is no " mode of action" in immerse, 
and the word is used to emphasize " the fall share of" 
wetting. 

But Carson is unwilling that any one should believe that 
Aristotle writes Greek after a fashion which overturns the 
Baptist system; he, therefore, presses the point thus : " In 
the same style we might say, that, at the flood, God im- 
mersed the mountains in the waters, though the waters 
came over them." " Might say this" ? Why not say it? 
Is it not as proper to say that an object is " immersed" 
when " water comes over it," as when it is "put into the 
water"? "What has "the immersion" to do with the one 
mode or the other mode ? Here is laid bare the vicious 
element which runs through Baptist writings, to wit, the 
making "immerse" a verb of modal action: confounding 
it with dip; as, also, l3a-r(Za> is confounded with /5a-ro>. 
And worse than this is the use, as exigency requires, of 
immerse, also, as an immodal word, with no intimation of 
the double, groundless, and contradictory sense. God did 
" immerse the mountains in the waters of the flood;" but 
no one since the flood, except the very eminent contro- 
versialist of Tubbermore, ever thought of saying that in 
this statement "immersed" is used with the design of 
expressing, with great beauty of rhetoric, the lifting up 
of the mountains and dipping them into the flood ! 

It is still farther urged: "The thing here supposed to 
be baptized was wholly buried under water. Can any 
child, then, be at a loss to learn from this that baptism 
means to lay wider water? Who, then, can be at a loss to 
know the meaning of the word baptism ?" 

Then, after all, there was no baptism of the sea-coast. 
It was only a " supposed" baptism ! Observe how uncom- 
promisingly Carson holds on to the idea that a baptism is 
a dipping, and nothing else is. He stands by the dogma 
of Baptists in opposition to Aristotle ; because he knows 
that to abandon it is to abandon the citadel of his denomi- 
nation, and to lower the controversial banner under which 

16 



242 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

they have so long and so manfully done battle. Carson, 
" the man whose like will not arise for a thousand years," 
felt that this was the point which Baptists had undertaken 
to defend against the world; he believed it to be true with 
all his heart, and because he believed it he cast in his lot 
with them; and he felt that he could not give it up even 
with Aristotle against him, for with it went, as he believed, 
everything. Now, when we see other Baptist writers com- 
pelled to give up, what Carson felt was giving up all, what 
shall we think? Must they not change their judgment 
of their great Leader, or surrender? 

(3.) Dr. Fuller treats this passage thus : "A fourth case 
cited by Pcedobaptist authors is from Aristotle. It is 
produced to show that Baptizo does not always mean the 
act of plunging. My position is that Baptizo means to 
immerse. It matters not how the immersion is effected. 
And the passage is conclusive against those who ad- 
duce it." 

This passage presents a very neat specimen of contro- 
versial tactics. It is confessed that the passage is cited 
against plunge, dip, et id omne genus, as the legitimate repre- 
sentatives of pa-ri'w. Does Dr. Fuller deny that it crush- 
ingly proves the point for which it is cited ? He is dumb 
with silence. He has not a syllable to utter in defence of 
those cherished terms. How, then, does it happen that 
the passage is conclusive " against those who adduce it?" 
But why was the passage cited ? Because Baptists for a 
century had proclaimed that " the word meant, always, 
to dip, to plunge." Does Dr. Fuller deny this? And why 
does he say, " My position is that Baptizo means to im- 
merse" ? Why, because he is unwilling to go down in the 
Baptist boat sinking with its load of modalism, and he leaps 
overboard and swims to the shore, to lift up, not the old 
Baptist standard, but Dr. Fullefs — to wit, " My position 
is .that Baptizo means immerse. It matters not how the 
immersion is effected." 

If the passage cited has wrought with such tremendous 
effect, how is it "conclusive against those who adduce it"? 



SEA-COAST BAPTISM. 243 

Does Dr. Fuller say : "But you believe in baptism by 
sprinkling, and this is not such baptism." I answer: 
AVhcn we adduce this passage to prove baptism by sprink- 
ling, it will be time enough to say, it makes against us; 
until then it will be sufficient for the Doctor to note the 
sweeping execution which it makes in the direction for 
which it was cited. 

In the new legend under which Dr. Fuller rallies, soli- 
tary and alone, we must not fail sharply to notice the 
absolute antagonism between the use of " immerse," and 
the same word as used by Carson. The latter uses " im- 
merse" as the equivalent of dip; the former repudiates all 
such affinity, and declares that there is no necessary con- 
nection between them, and " it matters not how the im- 
mersion is effected." It is because of facts like these, in 
different writers, and in the same writer, that I complain 
of the "duplicity" which characterizes the use of this 
word. Carson builds his system on the use of dip and 
immerse as interchangeable equivalents. Fuller makes 
the corner-stone of "my position" the repudiation of 
this doctrine, and builds on "immerse" divorced from 
modalism. 

The argument of Carson is pronounced by his friend to 
be a failure. What fate awaits that which is proposed as 
a substitute remains to be seen. The Doctor has a very 
cheering confidence in his success : " I have established, 
beyond all controversy, what is the only meaning of Bap- 
tizo" (p. 20). Having secured such a prize, one would 
suppose that he would hold it fast. But it seems not to 
be prized over highly. "Witness the following : " You 
may be immersed in any manner you choose; but sprink- 
ling and pouring are not modes of immersion" (p. 15). 
This is true only: 1. By abandoning "my position" — 
"immersion may be effected in any manner." Or, 2. By 
falling back on the duplex use of immersion, and giving it 
a modal character. For it is beyond denial that the con- 
dition of " immersion" may be effected by both sprinkling 
and pouring. Indeed he himself says : " Suppose a man 



244 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

should lie in the baptistery while it is filling. The pour- 
ing of the water would not be immersion,, yet an immer- 
sion would take place if he remained long enough." " If 
the liquid is poured in such abundance that a baptism 
(immersion) follows, they cry out, There, how plain it is 
that to pour and to baptize is the same thing." Not too 
fast. One thing at a time. 1. We have here the confes- 
sion that immersion may be effected by pouring, over 
against the denial that sprinkling and pouring are modes 
of immersion. 2. 7 As to " the cry" made in view of this 
fact, we prefer making i' ourselves, and in doing so declare, 
not that " to pour and to baptize are the same thing;" but 
that pouring is a mode by which baptism may be effected; 
and add to our cry this farther, — no* well-informed person 
will say that " to dip- and to baptize are the same thing." 
Thus Fuller lowers the time-worn standard — " dipping is 
baptizing, and baptizing is dipping," — " a definite act," — 
"mode, and nothing but mode," — and unfurls in its stead 
the heretical motto — " immersion by pouring." 

(4.) Dr. Conant translates, without comment, "im- 
mersed;" and Professor Ripley translates both pamiZto and 
zaraiduZ<i> by "overflow;" with the remark, that " these two 
words are equivalents." It may, certainly, be so used. 
But I would ask Professor Ripley if he ever knew pdima 
and xaraxXbW to be used as equivalents ? 

Baptist writers have been allowed to speak freely on 
this passage ; and we have seen the faith of Gale in modal- 
ism sadly shaken by the baptizing billows ; while that of 
Fuller is wholly swept away. Carson, with unflinching 
courage, holds on to modality in its severest forms, and, 
with a boldness above that of England's king, plants his 
system by the sea-shore, and as the ocean billows dash 
over him and it, proclaims, from out the flood, " that it is 
only a supposed baptism, and the Prince of Philosophers 
only means to declare him beautifully dipped." 

Alexander Carson, LL.D., is a true representative man. 
He is the last of the giants among old-fashioned modal 
Baptists. No other such man will ever say — " to baptize 



cupid's baptism, 245 

is to dip., and to dip is to baptize." lie claims the record, 
" If dipping could have been defended by any right hand, 
it would have been defended by this." 



"3." "I found Cupid among the roses, and holding 
him by the wings I mersed him into the wine, and took 
and drank him." Julian, Egypt. 

"5." But when the Sun had mersed himself into the 
Ocean flood. Oupheus. 

The use of efe in these passages does not prove that 
$a.Trri*u> expresses motion. All languages employ verbs ex- 
pressive simply of position or condition in connection with 
prepositions which imply the existence of movement. In 
such cases the most commonly received interpretation is 
that which supplies a verb of motion. 

Kiihner ^ives the following examples : l<pdvQ lis eiq 6d6v — 

crdq iq p.i<7ov — r.apr^av slq ^apdeiq — eq ttjv lalaiuva vxixeiTat. 

Virgil exhibits similar usage : Sol qaoque, et exoriens, et 
quum se condit in undas. Ovid : Mergit in ima ratem. Seneca: 
Mergere ad Styga. The verb of motion involved in this 
latter phrase is expressed in a parallel passage by Ovid: 
Jfersa, Stygias penetrant in undas. 

The same usage obtains in English : He buried the ball 
into the icood. They landed the troops into Fort Pickens. 

"To appear," "to stand," "to be," "to lie," &c, do 
not express movement, yet they are conjoined with prepo- 
sitions which require movement. In all the above cases 
such a verb must be supplied. The same is true with 
regard to PeaniZa when it is used with efe, which usage is 
not frequent, and contrasts, in this respect, with that of 
fid-TiD. This interpretation is sustained by the use of the 
word in such cases as that of " the coast baptism," and in 
all cases where the nature of che act affecting the condition 
13 such as no one thinks of assigning to /3«-r£'i>. 

The mersion of Cupid is not a dipping, for he remains 



246 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

mersed in the wine until lie is swallowed down by the 
drinker, within whom his "titillating wings" are soon 
felt. 



" 2." And fishing-rod triply stretched, and cork un- 
mersed by water. Archias. 

" 4." We wondered, therefore, seeing them not mersed, 
but sustained above the waves. Lttuian. 

" 7." A bladder, thou mayest be mersed ; but there is 
no decree for thee to sink. Pujtakch. 

No modality of act can be gathered from these passages. 
The first two are negative, exhibiting their objects in an 
unmersed condition; and thus sustain the view that a bap- 
tized object is one which is brought into a definite condition, 
and not one which is made the subject of a definite action. 

The third passage is an oracular response in reference 
to the fate of Athens. The interpretation of the passage 
turns on the nature of a skin filled with air. This may, 
by force, be placed in a state of mersion; but its nature is 
such that it makes constant resistance to a continuance in 
that state ; and whenever the mersing power is removed, 
it will rise again to the surface unharmed, for a state of 
mersion is not destructive to a bladder. "To sink" is not 
a distinctive translation of duvw, nor is it easy to furnish 
one; it is used as an equivalent of fiaTrriZw; the idea being, 
that while the bladder might be mersed, for an indefinite 
time, it was not to continue in a state of mersion. The 
city might be subjected temporarily to foreign influences, 
but would recover from them. 

Carson translates: " Thou mayest be dipped, bladder, 
but thou art not fated to sink." On which Dr. Halley 
makes the following criticism : " And is it not surprising, 
if anything could surprise us, in the impetuous movements 
of theological controversy, that Dr. Carson should, in so 
many other places, render fia-riZuj to sink, or at least sur- 



ARMOR BAPTISM. 247 

reptitiously introduce that word as its representative, but 
here should make this self-same sink, his most obsequious 
servant, come out the antagonist of baptize, and in oppo- 
sition to the characteristic meaning of that word ? Ob- 
serve the tactics of the great defender of the Baptists. 
"What is to baptize ? Something contrasted with sinking, 
for so he expounds the oracle, and yet something identified 
with sinking; for that word he often employs as its repre- 
sentative, as baptized in debt is, according to him, sunk 
in debt. What is the difference between paxriZu) and Suva? 
The former is only to dip, the latter to sink, according to 
p. 61. To sink serves both for the synonyme and for the 
opposite of baptize, as it may be needed, and therefore we 
say, expurgate the book from that treacherous word, with 
which it is so easy to play fast and loose throughout the 
controversy" (p. 85). 

This " surreptitious" use of sink and other words (among 
which should be named, with emphasis, immerse) utterly 
vitiates Carson's argument. Without the lawless inter- 
change of words, widely removed in meaning, no plausi- 
bility could be given to the position, " /3a-nto> always means 
to dip." 



" 6." And dying they filled the lake with dead bodies; 
so that to the present many barbaric arrows, and helmets, 
and pieces of iron breastplates and swords, mersed-in the 
marshes, are found. Plutarch. 

Here is a condition of mersion in which these weapons 
and pieces of armor are found after the lapse of a long 
series of years. It will require Carson to rise from the 
dead to pronounce this a case of dipping. His mantle has 
fallen on no living man. All these bows, helmets, breast- 
plates, swords, were equally mersed. Who will say that 
they were mersed by the same modal act ? If by acts of 
diverse modality, who will say that pa-x^io represents acts 
contrariant in character? Who can believe that it makes 



248 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

the slightest difference to this word how these articles got 
into this mersed condition ? And does not the long repose 
of these relics in a state of mersion cast shame on any 
theory which takes panriZai for its corner-stone, and carves 
on it in capitals — " to dip, and nothing but dip " ? 

The Greek word is compounded, in this passage, with lv, 
and is translated by Dr. Conant "zm-merse." Thus no 
difference is made between the compound and the un- 
compounded word. And, farther, the preposition is local, 
and whether translated merse-in or immerse, the prepo- 
sition only gives position to the articles mersed. This is 
always the force of the compound im-merse. The local 
preposition, or the element in which without a preposition, 
is rarely expressed. The word itself, as expressive of con- 
dition, carries (in primary use) locality with it, and the 
subject-matter shows the element. It is more necessary 
to state the mersing agency ; and when the simple dative 
is used, it is employed to express such agency. 

The passage exhibits, very fairly, the meaning of the 
contested word. And there is no point of sympathy with 
the Baptist theory. " But it makes against those who 
adduce it," says Dr. Fuller. May-be not. At any rate, 
we shall have a plea to enter, in good time, so that judg- 
ment will not go against us by default. 



" 12." Alexander falling upon the stormy season, and 
trusting, commonly, to fortune, pressed on before the flood 
went out, and through the entire day the army marched 
mersed up to the waist. Strabo. 

" 8." They marched through with difficulty, the infantry 
being mersed up to the breasts. Polybius. 

Carson (p. 58) says: "Polybius applies it to soldiers 
wading through deep water. Does not this decisively de- 
termine the meaning of baptizo? They were not, indeed, 



BAPTISM BY MARCHING. 249 

plungecl overhead. That only was baptized which was 
buried. The soldiers in passing through the water were 
dipped as far as the breast." 

Was there ever such a medley of words! Baptized by 
leading, baptized by plunging, baptized by barging, baptized 
by dipping! What a commentary on "the one meaning 
through all Greek literature," and that meaning, " mode, 
and nothing but mode." Some think the good people of 
Ireland a little disloyal; but I did not know that the charge 
covered such disloyal use of the King's or Queen's English 
as to say that, men walking through the water all day were 
dipped! Such confusion of terms and ideas gives indubit- 
able proof of fundamental error in the conception of the 
meaning of the word. 

The only act causative of this mersed condition of the 
soldiers is that of "wading" (Carson), "passing through" 
(Conant), or, technically, marching. Now, does the Greek 
word mean to wade, to pass through, to march? Yes, if 
it expresses the act which produces the mersion. No, if 
it expresses the condition resultant from any form of act 
competent to effect it. "Which view does common sense 
and the laws of language sustain? Besides, we have the 
act producing the mersion stated by another word, (Sia- 
pabio). "Going through" neither dips nor plunges. It 
does merse. 

Speaking of the first of the above quotations, Carson 
says : " Dr. Gale gives some striking examples from 
Strabo;" and, then, he and Gale join in translating i3a-TiZu> 
by "sink," " sink or dipped." Then Carson adds: "Now, 
in these several passages, the modal meaning of the word 
is confirmed in so clear, express, and decisive a manner, 
that obstinacy itself cannot find a plausible objection." 

It may be that no objection can be found against the 
testimony of such passages when adduced to prove that 
" -ia-~l%u> means to dip, always, and never expresses any- 
thing but mode;" for an objection implies general truth, 
or some truth, or, at least, an appearance of truth, while 



250 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

the offer of the testimony of such passages to prove a 
modal dipping is simply the baldest absurdity. 

If Dr. Carson were to take the passage from Aristotle — 
" The berry, being pressed, moistens (fid-ret) and colors the 
hand," and translate it — " The berry, being pressed, dips 
(fid-ret) and dyes the hand/' — then urge it as proving "the 
modal meaning of dip, in so clear, express, and decisive a 
manner, that obstinacy itself cannot find an objection," 
his assumption, that his readers have not intelligence above 
idiocy, would not be more manifest than, when, he adduces 
such passages as that from Strabo as proof of the modal 
act of dipping. 

As the ocean tide flows over the Baptist theory, and 
merses it beyond redemption, so, every heel of the march- 
ing armies of Strabo and Polybius tramples on it, and 
leaves it drowned beneath the waters. 



" 10." Being innocent, he advances, unhesitatingly, hav- 
ing the water to the knees; but when guilty, proceeding a 
short distance he is mersed up to the head. Porphyry. 

This transaction is represented as occurring at a lake in 
India, which, according to the Brahmins, has the power 
of revealing character. 

This is another case of baptism by walking. Or, will 
any one say that the walking into the water and the bap- 
tizing were two distinct acts; that after " walking into the 
water up to his knees," he was then dipped " up to his 
head;" that mersion by walking is no baptism, while mer- 
sion by dipping is baptism? Will Professor Ripley say 
this ? He does say (as we have seen), " E"o one believes 
that the going down into the water is the baptism; these 
two things are perfectly distinct : the baptism takes place 
after the descent into the water; it is expressed by another 
word." Well, Polybius, and Porphyry, and Strabo, had a 
different notion of baptism from the Professor. They 



BAPTISM BY FALLING. 251 

thought that the action of walking was quite competent to 
effect a baptism without the help of any other word. If 
these sinners were dipped or plunged, we should, indeed, 
need another word ; but Porphyry manages the baptism 
by the sole aid of -xpopalvu). Surely, this passage brings 
neither aid nor comfort to the upholders of the dogma, 
"Baptizing is dipping, and dipping is baptizing." Por- 
phyry, certainly, was a stranger to the doctrine. But, 
u the passage makes against those who adduce it." Is this 
the only wine and oil which can be found to alleviate the 
deadly wounds of Baptist theory ? Remember, " a wise 
man does not determine a matter before he heareth it." 
Wait and hear. 



" 9." Although the spear should fall out into the sea, it 
is not lost; for it is constructed out of both oak and pine, 
so that the oaken part being mersed by the weight, the 
rest is floating and easily recovered. Polybius. 

The modal act in this baptism is sinking. So much of 
the spear as is mersed, is mersed by the act of sinking in 
consequence of greater specific gravity. Now, shall we 
on this account say, fia-Ti%u> expresses the modal act of 
sinking? 

There is no dipping in the passage. The axe which fell 
into the Jordan and sank, was not clipped. The fish-spear 
which fell out of the vessel and sank, so far as it became 
mersed, was not dipped. Whether it was recovered im- 
mediately, or whether it be unrecovcrcd to this hour, does 
not affect the nature of the transaction. The action of 
falling and sinking cannot be converted into the action of 
dipping. Nor can the condition of mersion, the result of 
the action of falling and sinking, undergo the metamor- 
phosis of passing out of condition into this twofold, or any 
other form of action. 

The weight, causing the mersion, is expressed by the 



252 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

dative without a preposition; which is the common mode 
of indicating the baptizing power. 



" 11." To one throwing down a javelin, from above, 
into the channel, the force of the water resists so much 
that it is hardly mersed. Strabo. 

This is the case of a stream flowing rapidly through 
a contracted channel. The act of baptism is " throwing 
down." This is as good a modal act for baptizing as any 
other, of some scores, that might be mentioned. Shall we 
append it to the list of meanings expressed by that mar- 
vellous Greek word? Or, wearied with such havoc made 
of the laws of language, shall we exclaim — Ohe I jam 
satis est. 

RESULTS. 

All the cases of primary use, in w^hich the mersed object 
remains uninfluenced by the mersion, have, now, been 
examined. Most persons will accept the following results : 

1. The confounding together of such widely separated 
words as fid*™ and panTi^co is as surprising as it is unwar- 
ranted. 

These Words have spheres of their own, and as they do 
not, in truth, trench on each other, so they should not, by 
our error, be made to do so. 

Bapting is not Baptizing, neither is Baptizing Bapting. 

2. To represent paitT(Za> by dip is wholly destitute of 
authority from Greek writers. 

3. The corner-stone of the Baptist system — " Dipping 
is Baptizing, and Baptizing i3 Dipping," is pure error. 
While the attempt to sustain that system by the admix- 
ture of dip and immerse is a mixing together of iron and 
clay, which truth will break in pieces. 



RESULTS. 253 

4. Any attempt to make /fcwrr&i express, immediately, 
form of action and not condition, must prove abortive, 
because unfounded in truth. 

5. The demand of peacrgto is for intusposition. To secure 
this it lays equal claim upon any act, or upon any number 
of acts, which may be competent and needful to meet the 
demand. 

6. While some objects remain unaffected by intusposi- 
tion within a fluid, or other closely investing element, it is 
obvious, that such a condition gives fullest opportunity for 
the exercise of the peculiar influence of the investing 
element over the enveloped object. 

7. Ba-~(Z<o is without limitation of power, object, or du- 
ration. Limitations, in these respects, must come outside 
of itself. 

"We now proceed to consider that class of baptisms which 
influences the object baptized. 



254 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 



INTUSPOSITION WITH INFLUENCE. 

1. "O-cot; to jjlsv ftanTiZopcvov rrjs vrjdq dvaxoutptGatpsv. 

Achilles Tat. iii, 1. 

2. Kdi iJ.ty.pov fia7ZTiZ£zai to Gxdcpoq. tl " iii, 1. 

3. Ba-ri^et too )<oyiGpoo rqv dvaizvorjv. u " iv, 10. 

4. Tr,<z vsajs xivdwwouar^ pantriZeaOai. JEsop, Shepherd and the Sea. 

5. Trfj (I'oyrp ayav fisfia-TtGpivTjv rw Gcopart. Alex. Aphrod. i, 28. 

6. Be^aizrtff/iivTjv £v rip fidOei too Gwparoq. " iC ii, 38. 

7. ^AOpouic, zaTafia-TtZe'. xdi ffftivvufft. " " i, 16. 

8. UeptXr^Oivra dtacpdicpsrat ^durt^opsva. Diod. Sic. i, 36. 

9. Tfj-z S£ \>scb$ fia-riGOiiGr^, Tapa-pi xar(G%£. " " xi, 18. 

10. Karatpspopzw; TzoXXooq £@d7CTt£e. " xvi, 80. 

11. Td re izlola. . . . vaoloyoovra ^a-rcGdr^vat. 

Dion. Cass. Horn. Hist, xxxvii, 58. 

12. 0\ dk xai 6~b rod fidpooz abrcbv ftaTZTtGHvrsq. 

Dion. Cass. Rom. Hist, xli, 42. 

13. 0\ ph 6~d zoo nvsoparos £fia-ri%ovro. 

Dion. Cass. Bom. Hist, lxxiv, 18. 

14. "0q vov rerdprqv ypipav fiaacriZertu. Eubulus. Nausicaa. 

15. 'Ev vrp. peydXy rdicov PazTiZeadat. Epictet. Mor. Dis. xi. 

16. "Hdrj dk iSaizriXopivw xai xaxaSbvai pixpfo. Heliod. JEthiop. V, 28. 

17. Try vT t a rLoXXoiffi (popTUuai fta-Tiaavxa. Hippocrates, iii, 809. 

18. Kdi dviizveev wq ix too fcfiaxTiaOai. iii, 571. 

19. c £? fia-riaUvToq. . . . w<; ts fep fuotOqwai. Homer, Life of; ii, 26. 

20. Kdi k'rt b Tti> awpaxi fitfia-Tiapb-Q. Plotinus, Ennead. i, 8, 13. 

21. ' ' A-spirpe-Tov xdi apd-riGtov. Plutarch, Animals, xxxv. 

22. T-' do-ujv PaiZTgofiwot xdi xardduyovreq. Polyhius, Hist. V, 47. 

23. 'Oods yap ro~iq dzoXopftotq fiaxriXzGOai aufiftabet. Strabo, vi, 2, 9. 

24. Myds PaitTi'eGQai rov Ipfidvra. " xiv, 2, 42. 

25. ' 'EpaTZTtZovro 6-d r? t q TzavoTzUaq. Suidas, Lexicon. 



QUOTATIONS. 255 



BAPTISM WITH INFLUENCE. 

1. That we might raise up the mersed part of the ship. 

2. And the ship is nearly mersed. 

3. Merses the breathing of the intellect. 
4 The ship in hazard of being mersed. 

5. The soul being mersed very much by the body. 

6. Mersed in the depth of the body. 

7. Suddenly demerses and quenches the vital warmth. 
8 Many inclosed by the river perish, being mersed. 

9. His ship having been mersed, confusion seized the fleet, 
in. Carrying down many, mersed and destroyed them. 

11. And ships anchored were mersed. 

12. And others perished, mersed, by their own weight, in the 

very vessels. 

13. Some were mersed by the wind, using it immoderately. 

14. Who is mersed, now, the fourth day. 

15. To be mersed sailing in a large and elegant vessel. 

16 Mersed and ready to go down. 

17 Mersed the ship by much freight. 

18. And breathed as one out of a state of mersion. 

19. So mersed as to be warmed. 

20. Mersed, still, in the body. 

21. Not liable to be overturned and un-mersible. 

22. Mersed by themselves and sinking in the marshes. 

23. It does not happen to those unable to swim to be mersed. 
24 Xor is one entering it mersed, but lifted out. 

25. They were mersed by the full armor. 



256 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 



PAKTICTJLAK CASES EXAMINED. 
BAPTISM BY STORM. 

1. " We all, therefore, changed our position to the 
higher parts of the ship, that we might raise up the mersed 
part of the vessel." Achilles Tatius. 

2. " The wind changes suddenly to the other side of 
the ship, and it is nearly mersed." Achilles Tatius. 

4. " A severe storm occurring, and the ship in hazard 
of being mersed, throwing out all the cargo into the sea, 
he was hardly saved by the empty ship." ^Esop. 

9. " The commander was slain, and his ship being 
mersed, confusion seized the fleet of the barbarians." 

DlODORUS SlCULUS. 

11. " The vessels which were in the Tiber, and an- 
chored at the city and at its mouth, were mersed." 

Dion Cassius. 

15. " As you would not wish, sailing in a large and 
elegant and gilded ship, to be mersed."' Epictetus. 

16. " Already being mersed and wanting little of going 
down, some of the pirates, at first, attempted to pass into 
their own boat." Heliodorus. 

17. " Shall I not ridicule one mersing his ship by much 
freight, the blaming the sea for sinking it full." 

Hippocrates. 

21. " Of many models, the only one not to be overturned 
and unmersible." Plutarch. 

(1.) All these cases, except the last, refer to the loss of 
vessels at sea by storm or otherwise. Such cases are too 
fully self-explicative to need detailed remarks. BdxTw is 



BAPTISM BY STORM. 257 

never used in such cases, and, thus, is separated from 

(2.) To sink is the final act of mersion in all these cases, 
yet Baptists never bring this word into the foreground as 
their meaning, although "dip" has no claims in compari- 
son with it. It is, not unfrequently, slipped in as a ne- 
cessity. 

(3.) Conant commonly translates such cases by " sub- 
merged." Why sub-merged rather than wn-merged or 
im-mersed, if all mean the same thing ? And, why these 
prepositions and diversities when the Greek word has 
none, and remains the same? 

(4.) He also translates, in the third passage, "Saved in 
the empty ship." In itself considered, this is of no mo- 
ment* yet, as the dative case claims an important position 
among the determining elements of this inquiry, we should 
study accuracy and uniformity in all such cases. 

This dative is without a preposition, and is not locative 
It is, indeed, true that the shepherd was saved in the ship, 
but this is not the fact designed to be stated. He was in 
the ship, loaded or empty, and, of course, he was to be 
saved in the ship; but we are told that he could not be 
saved by a loaded ship, and, therefore, he tried to save him- 
self by an empty ship, and was successful. The point of 
the statement is. that by a loaded ship he would be lost, 
while by an empty ship he would be saved. 

The importance of the passage is not in the sentiment, 
but in securing the proper treatment of the case. 

(5.) All these cases exhibit the mersion as attended 
with influence in the highest degree. It is destructive in 
its nature. 

In all the usage of fid-no there is nothing which ap- 
proaches this, either in measure or kind. 

(6.) The duration of the mersion, in connection with 
these facts, has not yet run out; although, in some cases, 

17 



258 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

it has already lasted two thousand years. It will continue 
until " the seas give up their dead." Mersion is not, ne- 
cessarily, of prolonged duration; but it is without any 
self-limitation. It is permanent, except made otherwise 
by some extraneous influence. 
Does this look like a dipping ? 

(7.) It is the indefinitely long continuance of mersion 
which qualifies it to exert a controlling influence over 
objects physically mersed, and which makes it the repre- 
sentative word for any controlling influence (not asso- 
ciated with physical mersion), however that influence be 
induced. 



INTtTSPOSITION WITH INFLUENCE. 
BAPTISM BY WEIGHT. 

12. " Crowds of them fleeing perished ; some in em- 
barking upon the boats, thrown down by the press; 
others, even in the boats mersed by their own weight." 

Diox Cassius. 

13. " Attempting to escape, some way or other, some 
of them were mersed by the wind, using it immoderately; 
others were destroyed, being overtaken by the enemy." 

Diox Cassius. 

22. "But mersed by themselves, and sinking in the 
marshes, were all useless, and many of them were de- 
stroyed." POLYBITJS. 

* 23. "Pools near Agrigentum have the taste of salt 
water, but a different nature; for it does not happen to 
the unskilled in swimming to be mersed." Strabo. 

24. " Then floating, through the nature of the water, 
according to which, we have said, to swim was not neces- 
sary; nor is one entering it mersed, but lifted out." 

Strabo. 



BAPTISM BY BOILING-UP. 259 

25. " They were mersed by the full armor." Suidas. 

In all these cases of mersion "the act of baptism" is 
sink, and nothing but sink. Yet I do not know of anv 
Baptist writer who gives this act as the act of baptism. 
Recognized it has to be; but it is an acquaitance to which 
they have no partiality; in whose presence they do not feel 
comfortable, and from whom they part as soon as possible. 

There is, of course, a reason for this. What it is, it is 
not difficult to discover. There is too wide a gulf between 
dip and sink for the patrons of the former to extend their 
countenance to the latter. Sink is a very explicit and 
homely English word, that everybody can understand, and 
to say that the " one meaning running through all Greek 
literature" is sink, would be to sink the cause; therefore, 
it is toned down into the Latinism — " sub-merged." 

It would hardly answer to insist on a divine command 
" to sink men in water;" but if a modal act must be as- 
signed to the Greek word, none has a better claim than 
sink. The truth, however, is, that such is not its meaning; 
and to look for its meaning in any such direction is fruit- 
ful only in disappointment. Sink, like a cloud of other 
words, puts its object in a state of mersion; but neither it 
nor they can claim to be expressed, distinctively, by famiCd). 

The influence of this mersion is destructive. 

BAPTISM BY FLOWING OR UPRISING. 

2. " The blood boiling up, through great force, often 
overflows the veins, and flowing round the head within, 
merses the breathing (passage) of the intellect." 

Achilles Tatitjs. 

6. "Why do some, being alarmed, die? Because the 
physical power fleeing, overmuch, into the depth, with the 
blood, all at once sub-merses and quenches the natural and 
vital warmth which is at the heart, and causes death." 

Alexander Aphrodisias. 



260 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

7. " Many of the land animals, surrounded by the river, 
perish, being mersed; but some, fleeing to the high places, 
are saved." Diodorus Siculus. 

9. " The river, with a stronger current, rolling down, 
mersed many, and, swimming through with their arms, 
destroyed them." Diobortts Sicxtlus 

Very brief comment will suffice for these passages. 



" 2." This is the case of a person who has fallen down, 
in a state of unconsciousness. 

"Whelm" (Conant). This translation ignores "the act 
of baptism." That act was "flowing round" (nepcxXuZw), 
which is materially different from dip. Such cases show 
how vain is the attempt to* fasten on to pazrgm the form 
of any act, whatever, by which an object is put into a fluid 
element; and, no less, any attempt to stamp it with the 
form of any movement by which a fluid is brought upon 
its object. It is only surprising that such an attempt 
should ever have been made. Should it be persevered 
in, I nominate, as a worthy candidate, for "the one modal 
meaning through all Greek literature" — -flowing round I 



"6." The act of baptism is the sarnie with the preced- 
ing, — flowing of the blood. 

"Whelm" (Conant). Whelm neither immerses nor im- 
merges (in the sense put into); nor submerges (in the 
sense put, moving the object, under); nor dips, nor 
plunges, nor imbathes (in the sense bathing by putting 
into). If this be a just and distinctive translation, what 
becomes of dip and plunge as distinctive translations ? 

But the point of special interest,, in this passage, is the 
unanswerable proof which it furnishes, that a heated body 
may be "quenched" by pouring, or, in any other way, 
bringing water over a heated mass. The vital warmth 



BAPTISM BY WATER AND BLOOD. 261 

was baptized and quenched by blood pouring over it. 
Baptist writers have ever insisted, most uncompromis- 
ingly, that there was but one way in which heated metals 
could be quenched by baptism, and that was by dipping 
them into water. This error is, here, made patent. The 
mode which is orthodox for baptizing the vital warmth, is 
equally orthodox for baptizing heated metal. 



" 7." The inundation of the Kile is the subject of de- 
scription. 

It seems hardly credible that Carson should offer this as 
a case of modal dipping, and yet it is even so. It is well 
to have a writer who uses a pen which leaves a mark so 
bold in character, that he who runs may read, as otherwise 
it would soon be questioned that such extravagant views 
were ever held, or that it was ever said, that "fkacrga meant 
dip and nothing else." This is his language: " The w T hole 
laud, overwhelmed, might be said to be modally dipped, 
by catachresis, and that the animals would at first swim, 
and then sink, and be entirely immersed. The* sinking 
of animals is here called baptism. What, then, is baptism 
but immersion?" 

Here is a melange of words which exhibits a remarkable 
rhetorical and logical monstrosity. Egypt might, by the 
Xile's inundation, " be said to be modally dipped.'" Un- 
doubtedly it might be so said; but not outside of a lunatic 
asylum. But if Egypt, or any part of it, might be said to 
be " modally dipped," Diodorus says nothing about the 
land being dipped or baptized, but the animals only. 
Might it, also, be said that these drowned animals were 
" modally dipped by catachresis"? Such catachrcstic dip- 
pings would not answer in Tubbcrinore baptisms. But 
"the animals swim, then sink, then are immersed." Can 
there be the shadow of a doubt as to the sense in which 
"immersed" is, here, used? Is there any possibility for 
its meaning to dip, even " by catachresis"? Does it not 
represent the condition of the animals after sinking, and 



262 CLASSIC BAPTISM, 

as a consequence of the act of sinking? Is there not, 
therefore, an elimination of the expression of act on its 
own part? And this is the true and only proper use of 
the word. But Dr. Carson tells us, in the opening of his 
book, that the modal act dip, and immerse, are equiva- 
lents; while, here, he uses it stripped of all modal act, and 
expressive of condition resultant from the act of sinking. 
Such is the duplicity of use (not of intention) which marks 
this word. " The sinking of animals is here called bap- 
tism." This is error. It is neither here said, nor can it 
be said, that sinking is baptism. The one word expresses 
an act, and the other a condition. They cannot, with any 
propriety, be interchanged. Sink, on this occasion, as 
flow, fall, throw, walk, &c, &c, &c, on other occasions, 
expresses the form of the act by which the drowning-bap- 
tism took place. 

" What, then, is baptism but immersion ? " Logic would 
reply : " If the sinking of animals is called baptism," then 
"baptism must be sinking" But this would not answer 
Baptist need, nor "the one meaning throughout Greek 
literature;" therefore, the duplicity-word — immersion — 
must be slipped in, and in a sense which gives it mode. 
For if sinking is baptism and baptism is immersion, then 
immersion is the modal act, — sinking ; which is not true. 
The passage reminds us, very forcibly, of " nodding 
Homer." Indeed, Dr. Carson's book of half a thousand 
pages, so far as intended to prove that " /SoottjTw means to 
dip and nothing but dip," is one long nod. 

Dr. Fuller expounding the passage says, "the violent 
current sank many." The Doctor forgets that the sea- 
coast Baptism made him flee from a modal act to immodal 
immerse — exclaiming, with conscious relief, " My position 
is that poirci'to means to immerse." "Why has that position 
been abandoned for this sinking position ? Are immerse 
and sink the same? The sea-coast was admitted to be 
neither dipped nor plunged; was it " sunk"? 

Baptist writers (seeing that the suggestion of difficulty 
in the translation of this word is all " a pretence," and 



BAPTISM THROUGH FOUR DAYS. 263 

that it has but one meaning, of which they are the perfect 
masters) present themselves, in their writings, in a rather 
remarkable aspect by such colliding translations. 



" 9." This is a death baptism by a strong river current. 

These baptisms are a sort of dipping hardly contem- 
plated in "Baptizing is dipping, and dipping is bapti- 
zing." They exhibit an influence exerted over their object 
such as no Greek ever used /5a'7rrw to express, and to which 
no one, in a sane mind, would apply dip. 

BAPTISM THROUGH FOUR DAYS- 

" 12." " Who is mersecl, now the fourth day, wearing 
away the life of a miserable, starveling mullet." 

Eubulus. 

"Immerged" (Conant). Why, rather than immersed, 
dipped, plunged, I do not know. He says : "It is spoken 
with comic extravagance of one whose vessel is wrecked 
in a storm, and a prey to the ingulfing floods." A trans- 
lation from the Athenseus of Schweighauser is given: 

" Qui nunc quartum in diem undis mergitur 
Jejunum miseri mugilis terens vitam." 

A similar translation is given in Athencei Dcipnosophista- 
ru?n, Lugduni, 1612 : 

"Quartum jam diem, in aqua, mergitur 
Miseilique jSfestios Cestrei vitam agit." 

Dr. Fuller takes a different view of the passage : " Athen- 
seus quotes an ancient author, who says of a drunken man: 
He is drowned or sunk (baptized) now the fourth day, 
leading the life of a miserable mullet." 

The limited examination which I have been able to give 
the passages, in a library some distance from my home, 
does not warrant my acting as umpire between these par- 
ties. Whether this unfortunate man was " immerged," or 



264 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

" drowned," or " sunk," or " made drunk," his case is a 
much more serious one than it could have been under any 
condition of dipping. 

"Four days" is along time to pass through the process 
of dipping. 



" 16." "For, indeed, hereby he shows greater emphasis, 
as if the sword were so mersed as to be warmed." 

Homer's Life and Poetry. 

"Imbathed" (Conant). "Who refers to Iliad, xxi, 476 
(xx, 476, it should be), and xvi, 333, for the passages which 
induce the comment. 

I see nothing in Homer which implies that the entire 
sword was within the body in either case. Nor does the 
comment require that the critic supposed any such thing. 
He only says that the sword was so baptized as to be 
heated. Warm blood covering a sword, more or less, 
might heat the entire blade, or be poetically supposed to 
do so. 

iwi-bathe has no right to represent pairciZu>. The sword 
was warmed by blood and not in it. The sword was so 
baptized with blood as to be warmed by it. 

The baptism was one of decided influence. 



BAPTISM OF THE SOUL. 

" 4." " They have the soul very much mersed by the 
body, and therefore the seminal element partaking in the 
highest degree of the rational and physical power, makes 
its offspring more intelligent." Alexander Aphrodisias. 

" 5." "Because they have their nature and perceptive 
power mersed in the depth of the body." Alex. Aphrod. 

"17." "She dies, therefore, as the soul may die; and 
death to her, even yet mersed in the body, is to sink in 
matter, and to be filled of it." Plotinus. 



BAPTISM OF THE SOUL. 265 

(1.) We, naturally, notice first, that the investing ele- 
ment is not a fluid but a corporal body. It is similar to 
the use of mergo with a cavern, and to that of immerse 
with inclosure in a dunsreon. 

(2.) The first and second of these passages do not pre- 
sent their mersions under the same aspect. In the second 
(which refers to brutes) it is simply intusposition, which is, 
directly, stated. The preposition is used with the dative 
O za> t 3dfci rob ffw/xaraq'). The implication of influence is 
found in b zd> /Srifee. 

In the first passage, the position of the soul is made 
subordinate to the influence exerted over it by the body, 
in consequence of that position. Consequently, we have 
the dative without the local preposition {^amtfffiivr 4 v zu 
(Tw/xart). Accordant with this is the qualifying ayaui, "very 
much." This is perfectly suited to qualify influence, but 
not position. The body acts upon the soul, in unusual 
degree, and represses its development, while the soul re- 
acts upon the body, mersing it, interpenetrating it, with 
those powers which are not allowed to have outward de- 
velopment. 

(3.) The third passage combines both those features. It 
gives the soul intusposition in the body (h za> *&pan pepditrw- 
tUvrj), and, then, describes the excessive and improper in- 
fluence exerted over it, through the body, as death to the 
soul, while the body lives. 

(4.) How the soul is mersed by the body, we may under- 
stand, measurably. By what process the soul becomes 
ruersed in the body is not said. Ba—l'io does not throw 
one scintilla of light on this point. Dr. Ilalley says : " The 
Platonists evidently meant, by their baptism, the becoming 
inclosed in the body, whether, as they sometimes speak, 
the soul enters the body, or, as at other times, the matter 
concretes around the soul" (p. 3G2). 

(5.) All these baptisms are marked by powerful influ- 
ence. Dipping is unknown to them. 



266 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 



INTUSPOSITION FOR INFLUENCE. 

1. BanriZiov abrbv d-ixrsivsv. . . . JEsop, Ape and Dolph. 

2. Kdi fid-TtZsw rd dyjeia. " Mule. 

3. 2k xo/iafft izovtou fia-ziZiov, dk&rto. . Alcibiades on Eupolis. 

4. Kovrdv ow ei$ to udwp paxrtZouet. . Achilles Tatius, ii, 14. 

5. Ba-riZeaOat. zov fftdrjpov xard zou (TW/iazoq. " " iii, 21. 

6. Kdi xoiX-qv fiaTZziaaz xdi 7Z?.7]o'd/j.£>o<; udazoz. u u iv, 18. 

7. "Tizduzoo zoo xXrjQouz Taj* xwtzwv fia-r«jki7). Dion Cassius, L. 18. 

8. Tpwdivzov av aipiai twv axa<pajv i^aizri^ovro. " " Ii. 32. 

9. Kdi -hpaic xai fn^avijfiafft fiarzrtZovTeg. u " L. 32. 

10. Tlaiotisvoi u~o raj'j biavritov lfiaTZti%ovTO. L. 35. 

11. Tobq ds etq tyjv Xijwyv . . . fia-TiZovrcw. Heliodorus, JEth., i, 30. 

12. Aid %-ipwv to> Ilepawv gtoXov fia-TiZovra. HeimeriUS, X, 2. 

13. Kdi paxTiZew itakiv l- ydXa yuvaixdc. . Hippocrates, ii, 710. 

14. '&6sli> xdi toutov hci xetpaXijv fia-rtZovza. Luciail, Timon, 44. 

15. IluXiaz i/ifid-zceov oX/jltj. . . . Nicander, Geo., ii. 

16. l QiXi-Koq i±£ypno<Touzou diaPa-zi^otievoz. PolyceilUS, iv, 2, 6. 

17. "OpQdq k-\ npu[Lvav £fidirr£ov. . . Plutarch, Mar cell., xv. 

18. KaXwz iaurov fta-zi*wv eiz ttjv Kw-atda XipiVTjv. " Gryllus, vii. 

19. KdX etc zd mp.a Try yj'tpa $a-Tiaa<z. Plutarch, Par. Gr. &Rom., iii. 

20. Kai izoXXa twv <rxa<pa» IfidnTiZov. . . Polybius, Hist., i, 51, 6. 

21. BaxriZofievaj -Xrjpy QaXaTTr t s ZyiyvzTO. . " " viii, 8, 4. 

22. Ba-TtZofi£vY)v oxo vstbq KoXefiiaq. . . " " xvi, 6, 2. 

23. Ilept-yJTTeTat pad tux; to udwp izavri to ftaizTtaG&Ti. 

Strabo, xii, 5, 4. 

24. '£v ro> 7r>ia> 8v xdi fiaTtTiaai apetvov fy. . Themistius, Orat., iv. 



BAPTISM FOR INFLUENCE. 267 



BAPTISM FOR INFLUENCE. 

1. And the dolphin, displeased at such a falsehood mersing, 

killed him JEsop. 

2. Always, passing through the river, he let himself down 

and mersed the panniers. . .. JEsop. 

3. But I, mersing you by sea-waves, will destroy with bitterer 

billows Alcibiades. 

4. They merse, therefore, a pole into the water. Achil. Tat. 

5. They think that the sword is mersed down the body. 

Achil Tat. 

6. Mersing and filling it, hollowed, of water. " " 

7. Would be mersed by the very multitude of the rowers. 

Dion Ca&sius. 

8. Their vessels, being pierced by them, were mersed. 

Dion Cassius. 

9. Mersing them both by stones and engines. " " 

10. Struck by the enemy they were mersed. " ' 

11. Mersing .... others into the lake. . Heliodorus. 

12. Mersing with his hands the fleet of the Persians. 

Heimerius. 

13. Merse it again into woman's milk. . Hippocrates. 

14. Thrust such a one upon the head, mersing him. Lucian. 

15. Many, merse-in strong brine. . . Nicander. 

16. Philip was so long thorough-mersing. . Polyamus. 

17. Lifting up, by the prow, erect upon the stern, they mersed 

them Plutarch. 

18. Nobly mersing himself into the lake Copais. " 

19. Mersing his hand into the blood. . . " 

20. They mersed many of the vessels. . Polybius. 

21. Mersed, they became full of the sea. . " 

22. Mersed by a hostile vessel. ... " 

23. The water is inerusted so easily about everything mersed 

into it Strabo. 

24. One saved in the voyage whom it were better to merse. 

Themistius. 



2G3 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

PARTICULAK CASES EXAMINED. 
DROWNING BAPTISM. 

I. " And the dolphin, displeased at such a falsehood, 
mersing, killed him." ^Esop. 

3. " But, mersing you by sea-waves, I will destroy you 
by bitterer billows." Alcibiades. 

10. " Struck by the enemy, were mersed." 

Dion Cassius. 

II. " Mersing others into the lake." Heliodorus. 

14. " Thrust such a one upon the head, mersing him." 

Lucian. 

18. " Nobly mersing himself into the lake Copais." 

Plutarch. 

24. " One saved in the voyage, whom it were better to 
merse." Themistius. 

(1.) These are cases of drowning. The drowning was 
by mersion, and was the influence designed to be secured 
over the mersed objects. 

Mersion does not necessarily drown, because something 
may intervene to arrest this consummation; but where there 
is no such intervention, all living animals are drowned by 
mersion. 

(2.) In many of these cases the mersed object was al- 
ready in the water, and only the head remaining above; 
yet the putting under the head merely, causing death, is 
called mersion (baptism) of the person. 

This is of interest to those who claim to baptize by 
walking into the water and then dipping the head. Dip- 
ping the head would have been quite another affair to the 
ape, or to Eupolis, from the baptism which they are re- 
ported to have received. 



VARIOUS INFLUENCES. 269 

(3.) Rd-Tio, lingo, dip, are never used to express any case 
of drowning. Their power and nature unfit them for any 
such use. 

(4.) " The act of baptism," as a uniform modal act, has 
no shadow of existence. The form of the act, through 
which the mersion is secured y does not enter into the 
meaning of the word. Such acts are multitudinous and 
endlessly diverse. 

(5.) We see from such usage how readily fia-TcZio might 
(does?) advance, from the idea of mersion, to express di- 
rectly that of drowning. 

In such use as in 24, — " the pilot does not know whether 
he saves in the voyage one whom it were better to merse," 
— we are shut up to the meaning, to drown. 



VARIOUS INFLUENCES. 
SATURATION, INCRUSTATION,. ETC. 

2. " Always, passing through the river, he let himself 
down and mersed the panniers." ^Esop. 

4. " They merse a pole into the water prepared with 
pitch." xIciiil. Tat. 

6. " He lets down his hand into the water, and mcrsing 
and filling it, hollowed, with water, darts the drink to- 
wards his mouth, and hits the mark." Achil. Tat. 

13. " Then dipping into oil, rose or Egyptian, apply it 
through the da}-, and, as soon as it stings, take it away, 
and merse it, again, into woman's milk." Hippocrates. 

15. "Merse many in strong brine, after dipping in boil- 
ing water." Nicaxder. 

16. " Philip was so long thorough-mersing with the 
Pancratiast and sprinkling the face, that he did not give 
up, until the soldiers, wearied, scattered." Poly^nus. 



270 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

19. " He gathered the shields of the slain foe, and, 
having mersed his hand into the blood, he reared a trophy 
and wrote upon it." Plutarch. 

23. " The water is incrusted so easily about everything 
mersed into it, that they draw up crowns of salt, when 
they let down a rush circle." Strabo. 

It is not necessary to enter minutely into each case. 
Some of the more important features will be noticed. 

(1.) Translation. — Dr. Conant translates " 2." " im- 
merse;" "4." "plunge;" "6." " dip." Why, this varying 
translation^ inexplicable either on the merits of the case 
or on Baptist principles. The word remains the same in 
every case, while the translation is different in every case. 
Baptists say there is but one meaning to the word through- 
out the entire Greek language; while here, in three pas- 
sages, we have three distinct meanings. 

Dip, plunge, and immerse differ, essentially, in mean- 
ing, and cannot possibly be, true, critical, translations of 
the same word. 

Besides, in two of these passages (2 and 6), the act of 
baptism is expressly stated. In the first by 0<pUvai, in the 
second by xa^xs- neither of which, distinctively, means 
to immerse, to plunge, or to dip ; as neither of them is 
capable of expounding /?a7mf>, although capable, in par- 
ticular cases, to answer its demands. Whenever the trans- 
lator represents the Greek word by a modal act, it is, 
always, of his own will, and without warrant from ftaizri^u). 

(2.) Dip. — Passages marked 6, 13, 16, 19, afford alto- 
gether the best foundation on which Baptist writers can 
stand to make a plea for their dip. Besides these pas- 
sages, there are but three others (out of more than one 
hundred) which Dr. Conant translates by dip. That any 
Baptist writer, thoroughly committed to dipping, should 
be unable to introduce the word, on which his system 
hangs, in more than one passage in twenty, is a fact which, 



VARIOUS INFLUENCES. 271 

of itself, throws the gravest doubt about the justness of 
such translation in any case. 

Of the three passages (not given here, they will be here- 
after) which are translated by dip, one is stated with the 
acknowledgment, that such translation is embarrassed by 
the construction; another is accompanied with a doubt as 
to the nature of the transaction; and, the third makes the 
dipping take place in an element, represented by the dative 
without a preposition, contrary to current usage. 

In the first of the above cases, dip, clearly, has nothing 
to do with ,3a-7>X<D. You might as well translate nXijedpevoq 
by dip as fta-riaaq. Thej' both exhibit results, and not acts, 
consequent on the act expressed by the phrase, rr^ d? yjipa 
its to udwp y.a^y.t. If dip could be introduced, anywhere, it 
must be as a substitute for xa67,xs. This is the only word ex- 
pressive of the act done, and this was the act of baptism 
and of filling. But dip, and "let down," are forms of act 
which work themselves out very diversely. They do so 
here. It is one thing " to let the hand down into the 
water" for the sake of " mersing and filling it," and, after- 
ward, "darting the water thus secured into the mouth;" 
and, it is another thing to dip the hand into water. The 
process of letting down, mersing, filling, darting, may be 
a very rapid one, and a little complicated, and some may 
think that dip may, as well as not, be thrown in, some- 
where; but the short answer to this is, Plutarch did not 
think so. When he put ^wzri^oi there, he selected a word 
which can never be displaced by fidr:™, without Greek 
usage uttering an indignant protest, from a hundred 
mouths, against such violation of her sovereignty. 

To introduce dip, as representing /3a-W£w, is out of all 
question. To introduce it as expressive of the act by 
which the baptism is effected, and as much disconnected 
from it as xadyjxt, is, equally, inadmissible. 

These words are separated by the Greeks, in their vo- 
cabulary, and that separation is maintained, I confidently 
believe, throughout all Greek usage. To say that fia-TiZio 
may be controlled by fidnTw, and that a baptism may be 



272 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

produced by a bapting, is to say what the language will 
be searched, in vain, to sustain. 

There is a sort of mersion connected with the modal act 
to dip, full of limitations, which, because of this very quasi 
character, is unfitted to represent the true and unlimited 
mersion of the Greeks. Dipping-mersion belongs to itself; 
has a mission and history of its own ; and never, in the 
hands of a Greek, intermeddles with the mersion of intus- 
position and controlling influence. The accidental accord 
between a dipping and an intusposition, in rare instances, 
in brevity of duration, will never be made the ground, by 
any thoughtful person, of their confusion or their inter- 
change. 

It should, also, be observed, that the introduction of an 
act, effecting baptism, into the office of a representative of 
fiaxTiZw, is a liberty which, while Baptists indulge in most 
licentiously so far as comports with their own views, they 
will not tolerate in contradiction of their views. 

Dr. Fuller will not accept the act overflow (which con- 
fessedly effects the baptism), in the case of the sea-coast. 
Then, " my position is," it expresses no form of act at all, 
but only " immerse." When he admits that pour is an act 
competent to effect a baptism in the baptistery, he smiles 
at the witlessness which can confound the act inducing the 
baptism with the resultant, covered condition, in which, 
only, the baptism is to be found."' But when he feels com- 
pelled to admit that an object is declared, by a Greek 
writer, to be baptized, on which water had been poured, with- 
out its lying in a baptistery, and without its being covered, 
then, baptize means — what, pour? By no manner of 
means. The act must not be put for the resultant condi- 
tion. " Immerse," is it? Why, no. Unfortunately, there 
was no immersion effected; but the object was made very 
wet I And cannot a child understand that ^arM^m is here 
used, by a fine stroke of rhetoric, to mean " to drench " ? 
Perhaps so ; at least, if he do not, he lacks Dr. Fuller's 
facility in changing " position," and coolness, under em- 
barrassing circumstances, in finding an accommodating 



VARIOUS INFLUENCES. 273 

interpretation. Baptist writers should remember that 
within the domain of philology there is an equality of 
rights. 

Carson translates and comments on the passage marked 
" 13," thus: "Dip it again; the first dipping is expressed 
by pdupaq. This shows that, in the radical signification of 
dipping, these words are perfectly of the same import." 

If such argumentation had been addressed to Dr. Car- 
son, by an opponent, he would have met it with that 
peculiar treatment which his eulogist delicately terms — 
"Attic salt."' 

The reasoning assumes that fid-rur and fia-ri'u) are of 
"perfectly the same import." The assumption is ground- 
less, and the argument based upon it falls. Had it been 
said, " dip it in oil and then soak it in milk," what would 
have been thought of the reasoning which would make 
dip and soak " of perfectly the same import"? Are they 
not words of contrasted intensity, rather than of agree- 
ment? Dip expresses an act introducing its object mo- 
mentarily into "the oil;" soak expresses no form of act, 
but brings its object under the unlimited influence of " the 
milk." Such is the distinction between the Greek words. 
Their use by Hippocrates, instead of proving that both 
have the same power, proves the reverse. When the 
feebleness of fid-no has failed to mollify the application 
sufficiently, then the greater power of fta-xl'm is to be re- 
sorted to. The same conclusion is established by the 
contrasted use of these words in the Epigram on Eupolis: 
" You have bapted (whether washed, dyed, dipped, or any 
other possible thing) me; but I will baptize (killing) you." 
"Any child can see" that the latter word is used because 
it has a power which whelms the former. 

The same contrast is developed in quotation " 15." To 
make a pickle the article is first to be "dipped in boiling 
water," and then to be "baptized in strong brine." The 
sea-coast baptism is not better understood than is this 
domestic process. The "dipping" is not for the purpose 
of securing the full influence of the boiling water, but the 

18 



274 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

reverse; while the baptism into the brine is to secure its 
full power. Hippocrates affords no countenance to the 
theory which would confound these words. 

In " 16," fia-TtZa) is evidently used because a dipping 
could not express the idea. The point of the contest was 
to vanquish an opponent by depriving him of the power of 
breathing, whether the water was thrown into the face, 
or whether the head was held under water. The van- 
quished, on yielding, was released by his opponent from 
farther assault. This is quite a different affair from a 
simple dipping. Hippocrates speaks of the effect upon 
the breathing when one has been kept under water some 
time — xai avexvew &q £/. J2sj3a7rria0at — breathes as one out of a 
state of mersion. Such a passage ought to be sufficient to 
show that a bap ting and a baptism, even when they are 
brought into the nearest possible contact, are two very 
different things. The breathing is not affected by a dip- 
ping; it may be to any extent by a baptism. Therefore, 
Hippocrates, like a true Greek, rejects /5«-ro» and employs 

The passage marked " 19" is the last which makes spe- 
cial claim to a dipping, and no passage makes it with more 
plausible, though superficial, pretensions. A Roman sol- 
dier, wounded, is left on the battle-field, who spends his 
failing strength in gathering the armor of his slain ene- 
mies to erect a trophy. In order that he may write an 
explanatory and dedicatory inscription, "he merses his 
hand into the blood." It is claimed, that baptize, merse, 
in this statement, means "to dip" 

We ask for the grounds on which such claim rests. Is 
it the current usage of the word? We reply, there is no 
such usage as requires or warrants any such meaning. If 
anything in language can be proved, it has been proved 
that i3a-T(':<o does not express any definite form of act, and, 
therefore, does not express the definite act to dip. 

Is it said : This particular passage requires this mean- 
ing. I answer: Such declaration is founded in error. 
But if any act of dipping were present, such act could 



VARIOUS INFLUENCES. 275 

not be made the utterance of this word an}- more than the 
act of overflowing, pouring, sinking, walking, and a score 
of others, present in other cases of baptism. But there is 
no necessity for its presence. The hand may be intro- 
duced into a pool of blood in other ways than by a dipping. 
The idea of a dipping is facilitated by the mention of 
Writing, as though the statement were the same with dip- 
ping a pen in ink to write with it. A closer examination 
of the phraseology will show that such idea is not well 
founded. It is said, "the hand waa mersed into blood." 
Xow this, according to Baptist views (substantially, if not 
absolutely correct), requires that the entire hand should be 
covered in blood; but we cannot write with the entire 
hand, and it is simply absurd to suppose that the whole 
hand was covered in blood for the purpose of writing 
with the finger's point. The attempt to ally this phra- 
seology with pen-dipping, therefore, falls to the ground. 
It is not said that he wrote with the same hand that was 
mersed. Indeed it is quite possible, not to say probable, 
that the blood was taken up in the mersed hand, and from 
it the blood was taken, by dipping the finger of the other 
hand into it, and, thus, writing the inscription. If the 
statement were made, " He scooped up blood with his 
hand and wrote with it;" would "scoop" mean to dip? 
If it were said, "He buried his hand into the blood and 
wrote with it;" would bury mean to dip? It is as inde- 
fensible to convert baptize into dip, as it is to convert 
bury into dip. 

If any Baptist writer thinks that to dip would answer, 
in such case, just as well as to mersc, that is a matter to 
be settled with Plutarch. I do not pretend to correct or 
to rewrite (in imagined equivalent phrases) this old Greek; 
but merely to interpret what he has written. And he has 
written that the hand was mersed and not dipped, baptized 
and not bapted. I presume it will have to stand so. 

All the passages most favorable to dipping have now 
been examined, and I very cheerfully submit, whether the 
result is such as should overturn that meaning so well 



276 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

established " through all Greek literature," and sustained 
by correspondent usage in other languages- 



" 5." "But they who look on think the sword to be 
mersed down the body, but it runs up- into the hollow of 
the handle.' 7 Achilles Tatius, 

" Plunged " ( Conant), This is another example of a sub- 
stitutionary translation. This introduction of definite acts 
to displace ftaizriZwr is a mere matter of will or imagination 
on the part of the translator. It is not in the text. A 
description is given of a juggler's trick. In the first mem- 
ber of the sentence the condition of the sword, supposed 
to be sheathed in the body, is stated without expressing 
the form 1 of action by which it reaches that condition. 
In the latter member of the sentence, the mode of state 
ment is reversed. The form of action is given, but not 
the condition resultant from that action. 

An ellipsis,, in, both members, might be supplied thus: 
"They who* look on think the sword to be mersed, running 
down into the body ; but it is mersed running up into the 
hollow of the handle." Or, you may substitute act and 
condition in the one case or the other — " They who look 
on think the sword to be run down the body ; but it is 
mersed into the hollow of the handle." But we must not 
give substitution for translation, whether it be dip, or 
plunge, or run up, or ran down. 

The sword is not influenced by mersion into the body, 
but the body is. The body is mersed by the sword run 
into it, just as Semele was mersed by the thunderbolts of 
Jove. And in such case no iotusposition exists, real or 
imaginary; but the simple and direct import of mersion, 
as so used,, is that of death-producing influence. The 
intusposition of one thing within another is equally favor- 
able to the communication, as well as the reception of 
influence. 



BAPTISM OF SHIPS. 277 



VESSELS MERSED IN ORDER TO THEIR DESTRUCTION. 

u 7 " u And jf anv vessel came near, how could it be 
that it would not be rnersed by the very multitude of the 
oars?" Dion Cassius. 

" 8." u If they succeeded, they came off the better; but 
if they failed, their own vessels, being crushed, were 
mersed." Dion Cassius. 

u g^" u The others, mersing the attaching ships by 
stones and engines from above." Dion Cassius. 

u 12." u I will show you, also, my soldiers, one fighting, 
most naturally, even in a painting; and another, by his 
hands, mersing the fleet of the Persians." Dion Cassius. 

" 17." u Some, by a weight fastened above, pressing 
down they sank into the deep; others, by iron hands or 
mouths like cranes, drawing up by the prow, upright upon 
the* stern, they mersed." Plutarch. 

" 20." " They made incessant attacks, and mersed many 
of the ships." Polybius. 

" 21." " But the most, the prow being let drop from on 
high, were mersed, and became full of the sea and con- 
fusion." Polybius. 

" 22." " Pierced and mersed by a hostile vessel." 

Polybius. 

The features of these baptisms are too obvious to call 
for exposition. The act effecting the baptism is widely 
various ; the farthest possible removed from dip. The 
dative without a preposition, and the genitive, express the 
agency. The duration of the baptism has no limit. The 
baptism is sought for its destructive influence. The ships 
were baptized, were left in a state of baptism, and have 
continued in it for two thousaud years. 



278 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 



INFLUENCE WITH RHETORICAL FIGURE. 

1. KaiTot yap paTZTiZ6[±evoq 6~o rr^ iztOunfas . . . xaQd-sp dk ix xo[iaroq 

foixuxTs, Xiywv Chariton Aphrod., ii, 4. 

2. AtovoGioq dk y . . . xarettiqTCTO p.ev 6~d ^scp-wvoq xai rr t v (/'u%ijv £j3a~T['Cero. 

Chariton Aphrod., iii, 2. 

3. UXolov . . . Idiou %£cjj.(ovo<; yi/iov, xai fia7zrt£6fievov & yaXijvq. 

Chariton Aphrod., iii, 4. 

4. Obdkv rcbv ^ecria^ofxivcov dtayipovcnv, . . . xav apa it xai to fipayurarov 

<r<paXw(7t, Tcau-^Xa)^ fia-rtZovTac. . Dion Cass., xxxviii, 27. 

5. Kai abzoq eifit rwv (3sija-THT/j.iva)v v~b rob juLsydXou xbfiaroq, kxsivoo. 

Libanius, Epist., xxv. 

6. 'AfidKTtffToq d[itj (pzllbz cbq vizkp epxoq, aXpas. Pindar, ii. 

INFLUENCE COMPARED TO AN OVERFLOWING WAVE. 

1. Then appeared the conflict of reason and passion. For, 

although mersed (baptized) by the passion, the noble man 
attempted to resist; and rose up, as out of a wave. 

Char. Aph. 

2. But Dionysius . . . was seized by a storm, and mersed (bap- 

tized) as to his soul; but yet he strove to rise above the 
passion, as out of a great wave. . . Char. Aph. 

3. I saw a vessel wandering in pleasant weather, full of its 

own storm, and mersed (baptized) in a calm. Char. Aph. 

4. Carried along in troubled and unsettled affairs, they differ 

little or nothing from those tempest tossed ; and should 
they commit any, even the least, mistake they are wholly 
mersed (baptized) Dion Cass. 

5. And I am of those mersed (baptized) by that great wave. 

Libanius. 

6. I am unmersed (un-baptized), like a cork upon a net, of the 

brine . Pindar, 

(1.) In no one of these quotations is there the shadow 
of a dipping. 



FIGURE WORN OUT BY CONSTANT USE. 27? 

(2.) Id most cases, it is the element which moves to reach 
its object. A sea-wave is irresistible. So is baptism. 

(3.) The point of the figure, in no case, is either act or 
covered condition; but turns wholly on influence, power- 
ful influence. To work out a parallelism beyond this, 
would speedily carry us to the point where would be 
practically exemplified the truth, that " there is but one 
step from the sublime to the ridiculous." 

FIGURE WORN OUT BY CONSTANT USE. 

These passages receive vividness and force from rhe- 
torical embellishment. For this purpose, appeal is made 
to those physical facts which give origin to the word in its 
literal use, and which serve to illuminate its tropical use. 

The number of such passages is not large. Words 
which pass from a primary to a secondary use, and are in 
daily employ, lay aside their rhetorical character, and be- 
come purely prosaic in their import. The secondary mean- 
ing becomes as simple, direct, stripped of ornament, and 
unfigurative as in the primary use. A designed and ob- 
vious rhetorical use of words (which have been turned 
aside from the expression of physical to denote logical 
relations), in ordinary conversation or writing, would be 
eminently ridiculous. Words which are simply tropical, 
which are in everyday use and have secured a well-defined 
meaning of their own, cannot, with any propriety, be 
termed figurative. They are as truly literal, in this ac- 
quired secondary use, as in their original, primary, and 
physical application. Observe the following definitions. 

"A figure of language, then, I define to be a distinguished 
mode of speech, which expresses a thought, mostly with 
some additional idea, and always more to the purpose of a 
writer or speaker than ordinary language, and which nat- 
urally results from a state of mind suitable to itself." 

Carson, Intcrp. of the Scrip. Figures of Speech. 

" Simple expression just makes our idea known to 



280 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

others; but Figurative Language, over and above, bestows 
a particular dress upon that idea ; a dress, which makes it 
both 'to be remarked and adorns it. . . . ISTo language is 
so copious as to have a separate word for every separate 
idea. Men made one word, which they had already ap- 
propriated to a certain idea or object, stand also for some 
other idea or object; between which and the primary one 
they found, or fancied, some relation. Thus the prepo- 
sition in was invented to express the circumstance of place: 
1 The man was killed in the wood.' In progress of time, 
words were wanted to express men's being connected with 
certain conditions of fortune, or certain situations of mind; 
and some resemblance, or analog}', being fancied . between 
these and the place of bodies, the word in was employed 
to express men's being so circumstanced; as one's being 
in health or in sickness, in prosperity or in adversity, in 
joy or in grief, in doubt or in danger, or in safety. Here 
we see this preposition in plainly assuming a tropical sig- 
nification, or carried off from its original meaning, to signify 
something else, which relates to or resembles it. 

" Tropes of this kind abound in all languages. We say, 
inflamed by anger, warmed by love, swelled with pride, melted 
into grief; and these are almost the only significant words 

which we have for such ideas In every language, 

too, there are a multitude of words, which, though they 
were figurative in their first application to certain objects, 
yet, by long use, lose that figurative power wholly, and come to 
be considered as simple and literal expressions." 

Dr. Blair, Fig. Lang., xiv. 

In accord with this last statement, Dr. Carson says: 
"Very many of the words of every language have re- 
ceived a metaphorical application; but when custom has as 
signed this as their appropriate meaning, they are not to be con- 
sidered as figures of speech. The grammarian, as Dr. Camp- 
bell observes, will find many metaphorical words which 
will not be recognized as such by the rhetorician. In 
explaining the word enlighten, for instance, the grammarian 



FIGURE WORN OUT BY CONSTANT USE. 281 

will say, that it signifies to instruct, in a metaphorical 
sense, from the resemhlance between the effects of light 
and information. But this term being as much appro- 
priated, now, in the above sense, as the proper term itself, 
the rhetorician does not consider it as belonging to his 

department." Fig. of Speech, p. 278. 

" A figure of speech is a certain conformation of speech, 
removed from the common form, and that which first presents 

ltselt. Quintlllian. 

All these statements and definitions justify the position, 
that any word which, in secondary use, has secured a well- 
defined meaning of daily, long-continued use, and with 
great breadth of application, loses, wholly, its figurative 
character, and must be considered simple and literal in its 
expression. 

This is true, in all respects, of ^ar.ri^a). We find this 
word used through a thousand years, commonly, variedly, 
and independently, as expressing a definite meaning of its 
own, clearly growing out of, yet wholly distinct from, its 
original, primary, physical use. 

It is a noticeable fact that this Greek word, according 
to Baptist writers, presents a figurative use as frequently, 
if not more frequently, recurring than the literal use. Is 
not this extraordinary ? But this fact becomes more no- 
ticeable when we turn to fid-rw, and find scarcely a single 
instance of figurative use in its primary meaning. Can 
any explanation be given of this very diverse usage of 
these two words, which, we are told, are of entirely the 
same value? There is an explanation, and one full of 
meaning. There was a time when Baptist writers gave as 
long a list of cases of the figurative use of fid-Taj as they 
now give of $a-z\*u}. How has that great cloud of figures 
been dissipated? Why, by the admission that they had 
made a mistake in denying to fid-xio a secondary meaning; 
and, thus, had been compelled to resort to figure to ex- 
pound difficulties, which, even by all the help of figure, 
Carson says, and says most justly, were "very clumsily 



282 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

got over." This history is repeating itself. By denying 
a secondary use to fia-riZw, a necessity has been induced 
for resorting to figure as often as to fact; seeking for help 
to get over difficulties, which, after all, are not got over, 
and the failure brings out the clumsiness of the attempt 
into the boldest relief. When pa-zi^a) is acknowledged to 
have a secondary use, it will be found to have but little 
more figure about it than has ftdnra). 

To show the difference between figurative and simple 
statement, Dr. Blair gives the following : " A good man 
enjoys comfort in the midst of adversity." This, he says, 
" expresses thought in the simplest manner possible." 
But Baptist writers say no; this is figure. It represents 
a good man " in the midst of a tempest — adverse winds, ad- 
verse waves, adverse skies, dark, glittering with lightnings, 
and shaking with thunderings, in all which he has peace 
and comfort" ! Whither has simplicity of expression fled? 
Again : " ' It is impossible, by any search we can make, 
to explore the divine nature fully/ is to make a simple 
proposition," says Dr. Blair. Baptist interpretation says, 
not so: " Search," " explore," demonstrate figure, and rep- 
resent the divine nature as a dark cavern, whose recesses 
are not fully penetrable! 

Yet again : " The simple style of Scripture, ' He spake 
and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.' " But 
Dr. Blair is sadly at fault according to Baptist interpreta- 
tion. This is not the sublimity of simplicity. This is 
highly wrought figure. The elements of chaos are rep- 
resented as endued with intelligence, hearing and obeying 
the voice of Omnipotence! 

Remember such cases when confronted by figures, con- 
jured up by our Baptist friends, out of elements less pro- 
pitious than those furnished by either of the above cases. 
Almost any sentence, of the most purposed simplicity, may 
be clothed in figurative habiliments until no longer recog- 
nizable by its author. 

We, now, come to consider baptism as a controlling in- 
fluence, changing condition, without any mersion. 



SECONDARY USE. 283 

CONTROLLING INFLUENCE— GENERAL. 

WITHOUT INTUSPOSITION IN FACT OR IN FIGURE. 

SECONDARY USE. 

1. 'EzzXrjffast TTjV <po%rjv xdi xareftdizrtffe. 

Achilles Tatius, Leucippe and Clit., 1. 3. 

2. Toffooroj nXifOet fia-Tiatfvat xaxwv. " " " iii 3 10. 

3. c dk zoj 6u/xo) fisfia-riGtiivoq xaraobsrat. u " vi, 19. 

4. 'EpKtiCTOtHFat ok al rbyat fia-riZouat ypdz. " " vii, 2. 

5. Kdi (Tro-e~iov iXaiai fiaicrieatz. . . uEsop, Man and Fox. 

6. Kara3a-ziaty<rzral fiot ra try. . . Alciphron, Epist., ii, 3. 

7. To rJS t 6oq rod otvoo. . . . xarajjarcriZst. 

Alexander Aphrodisias, i, 16. 

8. Ouroi /xev yap htiaravrai robro) diafta-ri^scrOai. 

Demosthenes, Aristogeiton, 1. 5. 

9. Mi; izavrzXajq ftspaTZTiaQcu aAA' dviyetv. Demetrius Cydon., xiv, 4. 

10. Tobz dk iotmrar . . . 6o fia-ziZooot rat? haipopaiz. 

Diodorus Siculus, i, 73. 

11. Kdi rfj (Toixwopa ^^oKrutfiivov. Ileliodorus JEthiopics, ii, 3. 

12. Miffai vbxTtq u->;u) ttjv ndXtv £fidicTt£ov. " " iv, 17. 

13. Mi) ffu/x^auT'.^w/xsda raJ robrou 7:d6tt. " " iv, 20. 

14. 'Eirstdrj ae rd GUfxjSefirjXora £(3a7tTi%ev. " " V, 1G. 

15. 'Epa-Tias yap oXyv Ixel ttjv Aaiav payfyxsvoq. Heimerius, XV, 3. 

16. w a\> eu6bq iftancrtZero rd aaro. . Libanius, Life. 

17. 'H IaXa;xL<; -epi r { v rr^Affiav tpaTzriaaq. " Declamat., XX. 

18. 'IVo /xixpar av fiaTTri<r6elr) TrpocrG^xr)^. u Epistle, 310. 

19. l O ftaxriZo/xsvov ebptbv rov adXiov Ai/xtova. tl " 962. 

20. C H Xb-7] pamfcouea ph ri t v ^uyjp. " Emp. Julian, 148. 

21. To 8e 67CoAeXetfxtx(vov SXiyov ov Iftanrfcero. " " " 71. 

22. Ba-ri%o;x£vou rod Tzpdyparoq. . " Oration, xliii. 

23. #£>* ayeis <r%oXi)v, dXXd fia^r^r}. . " Memorial. 

24. BaxrtffQzir 7} \>6(toi<; ij pdyiov rtyvatq. Plotinus, Ennead., 1, 4, 9. 

25. "0™ rob<; raixiaq ipdnrtasv. . Plutarch, Aristoph. and Men. 

26. c ///jta? PearctZoftivouq b~o ra>v Tzpaypdrwv. " Socrates. 

27. Ihvra/.iG/JAUiv p.upiddcw ocpXr^xaGt fizftaTzriapivov. 

Plutarch, Galba, xxi. 

28. ToT? <5I uirsppdXXouat fiaxriUrai. . " Education, xiii. 

29. BefkttcruFfUvos koXXoj (ppodypan. . Proclus, Chrestom., xvi. 

30. BaxriZo/xew re b~o r7 t z 6ob»7]<;, xdi. . Themistius, Oration, XX. 



284 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

CONTROLLING INFLUENCE— GENERAL. 

WITHOUT MERSION, IN FACT OR IN FIGURE, 

SECONDARY USE. 

1. Astounds the soul, befalling it unawares, and de-mersed 

(de-baptized) it. . . . . . Achilles Tatius. 

2. As in a few days to be mersed (baptized) by such a multi- 

tude of evils. ..... Achilles Tatius. 

3. But he, mersed (baptized) by anger, sinks. " " 

4. Misfortunes befalling merse (baptize) us. " " 

5. And mersing (baptizing) the tow with oil. JEsop. 

6. My life will be de-mersed (de-baptized). . Alciphron. 

7. The quantity of wine de-merses (de-baptizes) the physical 

and vital power , Alex. Aphrod. 

8. For these know how to thorough-merse (thorough-baptize) 

with him Demosthenes. 

9. Not wholly mersed (baptized), but bears up. Demetrius-. 

10. They do not merse (baptize) the people by taxes. 

Diod. Sicul. 

11. And mersed (baptized) by the calamity. . Heliodorus. 

12. When midnight mersed (baptized) the city with sleep. 

Heliodorus. 

13. But let us not be co-mersed (co-baptized) by this grief of his. 

Heliodorus. 

14. Because the events still mersed (baptized) you. " 

15. For there fighting he mersed (baptized) all Asia. 

Heimerius. 

16. By which the city would, immediately, have been mersed 

(baptized) Libanius. 

17. Salamis, where thou didst merse (baptize) Asia. " 
1.8. Would be mersed (baptized) by a small addition. " 

19. Who finding the unhappy Simon mersed (baptized). 

Libanius. 

20. Grief mersing (baptizing) the soul and darkening the judg- 

ment Libanius. 

21. But the remaining part being small, was mersed (bap- 

ized). . . Libanius. 

22. But now, as you see, the duty being mersed (baptized). 

Libanius. 



SECONDARY USE. 285 

23. You have no spare time, but are mersed (baptized). 

Libanius. 

24. Mersed (baptized) either by diseases or arts of the wizards. 

Plotinus. 

25. Because he mersed (baptized} the stewards. . Plutarch. 

26. That we, mersed (baptized) by the affairs of life. " 

27. Mersed (baptized) by debts of fifty millions. " 

28. But is mersed (baptized) by those which are excessive 

Plutarch. 

29. Mersed (baptized) with much wantonness. . Proclus. 

30. Both mersed (baptized) by grief, skm-cC, . Themistius. 

Although a word may have attained to a secondary 
meaning, it is still possible, with more or less facility, and 
with more or less apparent fitness, to treat it merely as 
tropical, and refer it back for exposition to>its primary use. 
Dr. Carson says that " enlighten" has a secondary mean- 
ing. If so, it should be expounded directly by that mean- 
ing, and not by resorting, every time it is encountered,, to 
the roundabout process of a reference to light and its 
effects in revealing the true position, character, worth, 
and relation of things. There is, however, scarcely any 
case in which this word is used r but that any one, who 
chooses to deny or to disregard its secondary meaning, 
may deny its acquired rights, and make out a case (in his 
own judgment a triumphant case), by appealing to light, 
and darkness, and mental analogies. Whether such per- 
sons can be better answered than by being let alone, I do 
not know. 

If in those cases which illustrate the secondary mean- 
ing of ^a-rCw, many of them can be robbed of their simple 
statement and acquired character by dressing them up, 
with more or less of violence, in the elements of figure, 
and dipping, or plunging, or sinking, or overflowing with 
water, no one need be surprised. The same can be done 
with the secondary meaning of almost any w r ord, mutatis 
mutandis. This was done through long years, by Baptists, 
with the secondary meaning of ,?a-rw, resolving every case 
of dyeing, into a dipping, unmindful of the havoc they 



286 CLASSIC BAPTISM, 

made of rhetoric or common sense. The same blind per- 
sistency in maintaining an erroneous idea is shown in Dr. 
Carson when he sets up the astonishing error, that " ^anzi^ta 
means dip and nothing but dip, expressing mode always;" 
and then, to make good his false position, brings in "cata- 
chresis" to dip the shore by the flowing tide, and the land 
of Egypt by the overflowing of the Nile. 

This position of Dr. Carson is too grossly erroneous, 
and its defence too utterly indefensible, for some of his 
admirers longer to maintain ; but with inconsistency, which 
has not yet settled down, they admit variety of modal ac- 
tion. They refuse, however, with one voice, still to admit 
any secondary meaning; and with no less violence to the 
laws of language development than in the case of fidicrw, 
turn every case of the secondary meaning of fiaxTi%u> into a 
dipping, or plunging, or sinking, or overflowing with water. 

SECOKDAEY MEANING. 

TO EXERCISE A CONTROLLING INFLUENCE CHANGING 
CONDITION. 

1. " For what is sudden, all at once and unexpected, 
astounds the soul, falling on it unawares, and de-merses it." 

Achilles Tatitts. 

What is there, on the face of this statement, suggestive 
of water ? Certainly, dipping, and plunging, and sinking, 
are out of all question. The only thing that could be, 
with any consistency, introduced, here, would be a wave, 
and from that Baptists shrink, because it moves the ele- 
ment and not the object. But to take " the soul" out to 
sea, and then conjure up a wave " suddenly," " all at 
once," "unexpectedly," "to fall upon" it, is a piece of 
extravagance in the way of taste which will commend 
itself to but few. How simply, clearly, and fully is the 
case met by attaching to the word the secondary meaning, 
to exercise a controlling influence, changing the condition. 

The notion that the soul is put under water, in any way, 



BAPTISM BY ANGER. 287 

or intended to be so represented, is simply absurd. It is 
influence only which is at issue. 



2. " What crime have we committed, so great, as in a 
few days, to be mersed by such a multitude of evils?" 

Achilles Tatius. 

It would require some ingenuity to work up " a few 
days," and " a multitude of evils," and a mersion, so as 
to form a billow, or a dipping, out of them. But suppos- 
ing some imagination to be sufficiently inventive and con- 
structive, better save it for a better purpose, and take, 
what is on the face of the record, the exercise of a controlling 
influence. The agency is expressed by the dative without 
a preposition. 



3. "But he, mersed by anger, is subdued; and wish- 
ing to escape into his own domain is no longer free, but is 
forced to hate the object loved." Achilles Tatius. 

" Speaking of love, contending with and subdued by 
anger, in the same bosom" (Conant). I do not know how 
" love and anger" are to be got into the water, unless it be 
in a " dipping match " after the fashion of Philip and the 
Pancratiast. But this will hardly answer; for love, it would 
seem, is kept under the water, unable "to escape." A 
wave, or a sinking ship, will not answer. Until a better 
solution is found, therefore, we will accept, what every 
letter of the passage proclaims, controlling influence. Anger 
exercises a controlling influence over love; holds it in sub- 
jection; will not let it escape. 

The agency is marked by the simple dative. 



4. " Misfortunes befalling us merse us." 

Achilles Tatius. 

I take this to be a very direct and prosaic statement 



288 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

announcing the homely truth — Misfortunes exercise a con- 
trolling influence over us. The introduction of "falling" 
waves or wrecked ship going to the bottom is a freak of 
the imagination not to he laid to the charge of Achilles 
Tatius. So Virgil — " Mersed by these evils." 



5. " And mersing the tow with oil, binding it to her 
tail, he set it on fire." ^Esop. 

This is told of a fox that had been caught, and was thus 
punished for mischief done. " Dipping tow in oil," is Dr. 
Conant's translation. It is objectionable : 

1. Because " dipping" is no translation of panrfcat. 

2. The proper form for expressing the element, in which, 
by the dative, requires the preposition. Its use may not, 
necessarily, indicate the element; but it lays the burden 
of proof, to the contrary, heavily, on the objector. 

3. In every clear case, where the inclosing element is 
associated with the dative, the preposition, by itself or in 
composition with the verb, is used. 

4. The dative, without the preposition, ordinarily, in- 
dicates instrumentality. It does so in all clear cases (in 
common with the genitive) with which we have to do. If 
such is not accepted as its import, in any particular, case, 
proof to the contrary must be adduced. 

5. No proof can be found in ^ar.rilio. Once this word 
was deemed sufficient to prove this point. The best Bap- 
tist scholars believe this no longer. Dr. Fuller escapes 
from the plunging fire of facts directed against the old 
position, confessing that any mode, " pouring," will an- 
swer, provided the object is covered. A heavy gun is turned 
against this new position, and it, too, is abandoned, with 
the admission that pour will answer, even if it does not cover, 
provided it wets very thoroughly, and there is a good deal 



BAPTISM OF VITAL POWER. 289 

of water all around ! Dr. Carson is very indignant at either 
of these admissions. Until Baptist doctors come to some 
agreement among themselves we may he excused from 
accepting the dogma of either party. 

6. It is beyond all rational controversy that this tow 
could be baptized as properly' by pouring oil upon it as 
in any other way. Vessels in which oil is kept are best 
adapted for pouring. It is improbable that a mass of 
tow would be mersed in a large vessel of oil. We claim 
that tow brought, thoroughly, under the influence of oil, 
in any way, is baptized, saturated, mersed, of changed 
condition. 

7. The translation should be, mersing the tow with oil ; 
the dative being without the preposition. 



6. " If I purpose to see all the rivers, my life will be 
demerseel, not seeing Glycera." Alciphron. 

An invitation to visit Egypt, and see " the beautiful 
Nile," was declined, on the ground that equal reason 
might be urged for visiting the Euphrates, the Danube, 
the Tigris, &c, to do which would consume his life and 
deprive of fellowship with Glycera. Is there anything in 
this form of expression, or the nature of the sentiment, 
which shadows forth water and a dipping ? Is there not 
the clearest statement, that to enter upon the course indi- 
cated would exercise a controlling influence over his life? 



7. "Why do many, made drunk with wine, die? Be- 
cause the quantity of the wine de-merses the physical and 
the vital power and warmth." Alexander Aphrodisias. 

Wine drank neither dips, plunges, nor sinks ; not even 
by " catachresis." iSTor does it, in this case, " cover" by 



290 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

pouring clown the throat; for it is a physical impossibility 
thus to cover over " the physical and vital power and 
warmth." For another reason. If wine, as a fluid, effects 
this mischief, then as much water would do the same. But 
this is not true. Therefore, it is a case of controlling in- 
fluence; not exerted by wine as a fluid, but by its peculiar, 
influential qualities as a drink. Life is mersed by it on 
the same principle that the life of Semele was " mersed" 
by the thunderbolts of Jove. Each has its peculiar power 
to influence controllingly, changing condition. 



8. "Not the speakers, for these know how to thor- 
ough-merse with him, but private citizens and the inex- 
perienced." Demosthenes. 

" Showing what kind of persons Aristogeiton was ac- 
customed to harass by false accusation and extortion. In 
this case the compound word is used metaphorically, and 
the sense is : For these know how to match him in foul 
language — in the game of sousing one another." (Conant.) 
Supposing this use to be derived from the contest in 
" thorough-mersing," it shows the very varied and facile 
application of the word. The orator employs the word to 
show the mastery which practised speakers have over 
their opponents; being able to confound them by their 
skill and power in the use of language, and thus bring 
them under their controlling influence. 



9. " For the soul has control over the body, and enter- 
ing into it is not wholly mersed by it, but rises above it; and 
the body, apart from- her, can do nothing." Demetrius. 

"We are, certainly, exempt from the intrusion of water 
here. And we are, certainly, brought face to face with 
controlling influence. Will any one say, the soul "enter- 
ing into the body" — doaav efe auzd — is not "wholly covered 
by the body" ? This would be a very nondescript sort of 



BAPTISM OF THE SOUL. 291 

figure. For the soul "to enter the body, yet not be 
wholly" under the controlling influence "of the body," is a 
very intelligible statement; very conformable with facts, 
and very much like what the writer declares. The soul 
u controls the body," and is not controlled by it. 



10. " On account of the abundant revenue from these 
sources, they do not merse the people with taxes." 

DlODORUS SlCULUS. 

The following exposition is given by Dr. Carson: "In 
this figure, the rulers are supposed to immerse the people 
through the instrumentality of oppressive taxes. Mr. 
Ewing ver} T well translates, ' on account of the abundant 
supply from these sources, they do not oppress the com- 
mon people with taxes.' The literal translation is: 'They 
do not immerse the common people with taxes.' The 
people, in the case of oppressive taxation, are not supposed 
in such figures either to have the taxes poured upon them, 
nor themselves to be immersed in the taxes; but to sink by 
being weighed down with taxes. The taxes are not the 
element in which they sink, but are the instrumental bap- 
tizers. They cause the people to sink by their weight 
This suits the words; this suits the figure; this suits the 
sense ; this suits every example which refers to debt; this 
suits the analogy of all other languages. We say, our- 
selves, dipped in debt, drowned in debt, sunk by debt, or 
sunk in debt. To sink in debt figures the debt as that 
in which we sink. It is a deep water in which we sink. 
To sink by debt figures the debt as a load on our shoulders, 
while we are in deep water. In this view, it is not the 
drowning element, but the baptizer or drowner. To be 
dipped in debt, supposes that we owe something consider- 
able in proportion to our means. But we may be dipped 
without being drowned. The last cannot be adequately 
represented by baptize except when circumstances render 
the meaning definite." 



292 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

This exposition would answer better as the basis for a 
caricature in the "London Punch," than as a simple in- 
terpretation of the historian. Is it to be imagined, for a 
moment, that Diodorus means, by a word, to touch some 
secret spring in the imagination of his readers, whose 
' movement would expose to their view the land of the Mle 
flooded, through all its borders, while its inhabitants were 
seen, with packs on their backs, struggling and sinking 
in deep waters ? Is this the import of the phrase, " merged 
by taxes"? Dr. Carson commits a marvellous error in the 
transmutation of mersion by taxes into such a water scene. 
What have "taxes" to do with water, shallow or deep? 
Do taxes dip people, or sink people, or drown people, in 
water? "But mersion has something to do with water." 
Mersion had something to do with water, once;. but when 
it entered into fellowship with " taxes" it came to live on 
dry land, and if it did not wholly lay aside the character 
of a baptizer, it certainly did bid farewell to all baptisms 
into water. If any one, through curiosity or any other 
motive, has a fancy for tracing back the relations of this 
word, after passing through all watery depths, they can 
bring back nothing germane to the case in hand but the 
simple idea of ruin, Dipping, plunging, sinking of the 
Egyptians in water is pure impertinence. The clippings 
plunging, or sinking of anything else is equally so, in all 
respects, save only as to the one point of destructive influence. 
Hence proceeds, for those who need it, a flash of light 
which illumines the passage. But the passage needs no 
such help. It is self-luminous. It proclaims with its own 
tongue the ruinous character of excessive taxation. This 
merses not into water, but into a stinted wardrobe, into a 
pinched table, into the sale of a cow, a horse, a plough, a farm ; 
into unrequited toil and bitter penury ! If the historian must 
be made to write in figures, this is his figure, — heavy taxes 
merse the people into financial ruin. But he uses no figure at 
all. He employs a word which was used every day to de- 
velop, in the fullest measure, the influence of its adjunct. 

Greek literature shows this secondary use and meaning 



BAPTISM BY TAXES. 293 

to be a3 true, as broad, and as self-sustaining as is the 
primary use and meaning. So self-evidencing is this use, 
that if every primary use were blotted out from the Greek 
language, and the remembrance of its existence oblitera- 
ted from the minds of men, still this secondary use would 
live unharmed, "having life within itself," to vindicate its 
unborrowed rights and claim a controlling influence over 
its objects. Can this be denied? Can this be admitted, 
and a secondary sense be denied? The dative is without 
a preposition. Carson rejects the translation in taxes and 
adopts by taxes without any reason given, and without 
any capable of being given harmoniously with his prin- 
ciples or practice. If the form 6u fia-ri^ooGi xai- ki<T(p< paU 
does not, of itself, determine that " the taxes " occupy the 
position of agency, whence the influence proceeds which 
effects this baptism, then, I know of nothing else which 
can confer such character upon it. According to Carson's 
own showing, there is nothing to prevent " taxes "from 
occupying the position of element in baptism. He says, 
sink in debt and sink by debt is equally proper; and as 
he, here, "surreptitiously" introduces sink for baptize, of 
course, it is equally proper to say baptize in taxes or bap- 
tize by taxes. But it is by no means a matter of indiffer- 
ence whether we assign to the dative, thus used, the office 
of agency or of element; nor is it reasonable to believe 
that we are left, at will, to select the one or the other; yet 
this must be so, unless the form of the phrase is taken as 
an authoritative guide. 

The translation of Dr. Carson is right, and the reason 
is, the grammatical form, and the elements of thought 
which enter into it, require it. The mersion is, purely, 
one of influence, and the source whence that influence 
proceeds,* and which gives character to the mersion, is 
stated. This completes the thought — mersion by taxes — 
such controlling influence as excessive taxation universally 
begets, changing the condition of those subject to it. 



294 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

11. " Cnemon, perceiving that he was deeply grieved 
and mersed by the calamity, and fearing lest he may do 
himself some injury, removes the sword privately." 

Heliodorus. 

Is there anything, here, suggestive of a cold bath ? Is 
there not the clearest statement of controlling influence? 
Does not the introduction of figure, "water floods, or 
inundations, swollen torrents, or shipwrecks," dislocate 
everything? "Whelmed by the calamity" (Conant). Ca- 
lamity is the agency, source of influence, and is repre- 
sented by the simple dative. 



12. " When midnight had mersed the city by sleep." 

Heliodorus. 

When midnight had plunged the city in sleep ( Conani). 
An object may be physically baptized by plunging; but to 
plunge is not the meaning of the word. Why " plunge" 
should be chosen to introduce to a quiet night's rest is 
hard to tell. I do not remember ever before to have seen 
plunge and sleep associated together. The ideas of force 
and violence are out of place. Sometimes it is said — " he 
took an opiate and fell into a sweet sleep." But in such 
case to suggest that figure is, hsre, used, and the sleeper 
is represented as standing on the edge of a precipice, or 
the bank of a river, and "falling" thence into a running 
stream, is too irrational even to be laughed at. " To fall," 
thus used, expresses, merely and directly, the idea of pass- 
ing quickly from a state of wakefulness into a state of 
slumber. "To plunge into sleep," is phraseology difficult 
to vindicate under any circumstances, and cannot be vin- 
dicated, here, either as the translation of the Greek word, 
or as the work of midnight. The probable use of this 
word was to secure the introduction of m. "Whelm" is 
the, almost, invariable translation of the many passages 
which Dr. Conant calls figurative. But "whelmed in" 
would not answer well ; neither would a dipping in sleep 



MIDNIGHT BAPTISM. 295 

answer; therefore, to save in, the rude term "plunge" is 
adopted. But according to Baptist interpretation, " plunge 
in" brings up a water scene. Sleep is figured as a flood 
large enough for a city to be plunged into it. Did any 
poet or orator ever venture to state, in words, any such 
figure? Rhyme and rhetoric carry license, oftentimes, 
into licentiousness; but I do not remember that either 
has ever taken the liberty of putting a city to sleep, figur- 
atively, by plunging it into water! The communication 
of the gentle influence of sleep, when represented by 
figure, proceeds on a wholly different basis. 

It has been already shown that " Invadunt urbem vino 
somnoque sepultam" — " Expletus dapibus vinoque sepul- 
tus" — "Rutuli somno vinoque soluti" — as well as "Sleeps 
in Port" — have nothing to do with graveyards, dissolution 
of the body in sleep and wine as a menstruum, or with 
the inside of a wine-cask as a bedchamber; but that the 
influence of wine and sleep, only, are indicated. 

I may now add that the same is true of other passages 
where a narrow interpretation would much more plausibly 
find water : 

" Unfit he was for any worldly thing, 
And eke unable once to stirre or go; 
Not meet to be of eounsel to a king, 

Whose mind in meate and drinke was drovmed so : 
Such one was Gluttony.' T Faerie Queene, p. 3G. 

" There did the warlike maid herself repose, 
Under the wings of Isis all that night ; 
And with sweet rest her heavy eyes did close, 

After that long daies toile and wearie plight; 
Where whilst her earthly parts with soft delight 
Of senseless sleepe did deeply drowned lie." 

Faerie Queene, p. 505. 

To represent any one as plunged amid " meats and 
drinks" for the sake of "drowning" them, is a kind of 
figure distinguished neither by elegance nor congruity. 
It is but little better, in the same sentence, to make one 
" sleep all night under the wings of Isis," and, also, lie 
" drowned" at the bottom of a pool. 



296 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

Edmund Spenser is not responsible for these beauties 
of poesy. He uses " drown," simply, to give strong de- 
velopment to the influence of its adjuncts, without any 
regard to cold water, just as Virgil uses " buried," for the 
same purpose, without any design of introducing his 
readers to a graveyard. 

. That sleep is not a vast lake, or sea, in which cities may 
be plunged, is farther shown by its distinct representation 
as an agency, and by the methods of its procurement. 

Ovid says : " Before the doors of the dwelling of the 
God Somnus rich poppies grow, and countless herbs, from 
the juice of which humid night gathers soporifics, and 
sprinkles (spargil) them over the darkened earth." 

There is no plunging or water-pool here. The sprink- 
ling of poppy-juice upon the eyelid is sufficient to " merse 
a city with sleep," or to drown the darkened earth -in deep 
repose. Elsewhere he speaks of sleep as agent in relaxing 
the bodies of men, homines solverat alia quies. He, also, 
represents it as an .agent, bringing Iris, standing in the 
chamber of Somnus, under its power : " She could no 
longer endure the power of drowsiness; and as she felt 
sleep to glide into her limbs {lain in artus), she fled." 
Virgil says: " Venus diffuses (irrigat) gentle sleep through 
the limbs of Ascanius." 

I know of no representation of sleep which differs, essen- 
tially, from these in any accredited writer. " To plunge 
a city in sleep " does essentially differ, and, I must think, is 
both an error of translation and of adaptation to the fitness 
of things. Spenser is quite in harmony with these classical 
writers in making sleep a gentle agency : 

" And then by it his wearie limbes display, 
Whiles creeping slomber made him to forget 
His former payne, and wypt away his toilsome sweat." 

Will any one put his finger on " creeping," and cry out, 
Figure! Shall we be treated to the picture of an animal 
stealthily approaching its prey with a collar around its 
neck labelled— "Sleep"? 



SLEEP-BAPTISM. 297 

Spenser thought that there was another and a better 
method for putting sleep into full possession of its object. 
He thus describes it : 

"By this she had him lulled fast asleepe, 

That of no worldly thing lie care did take; 
Then she, with liquors strong his eies did steepe, 
That nothing should him hastily awake." 

I have dwelt upon this passage, and endeavored to illus- 
trate its true character; because it is all-important to show 
that this and kindred passages are exhausted, under a just 
interpretation, by showing the agency, clothed by its asso- 
ciate fiaicriZtDy with a plenary influence over its object; and 
that no element for dipping, or plunging, or sinking, in 
fact or in figure, belongs to the exposition. From the 
original, physical use the idea of controlling influence has 
been eliminated ; and we have no need any longer to recur, 
in word or in thought, to such physical use. 

And now, in view of the fact that Heliodorus declares 
"the city baptized by sleep" — without giving any mode 
of baptism; and in view of the fact that Ovid declares the 
mode by which " night brings all in this darkened earth 
into a somnolent condition" is by "sprinkling;" it follows, 
incontrovertibly, that a mode of effecting sleep-baptism 
is by sprinkling. 

Let no Baptist friend be solicitous lest I should forget 
the difference, or should surreptitiously confound, sleep- 
baptism and water baptism. I will ever try to distinguish 
between things that differ, and am, for the present, quite 
satisfied with the point reached — the unchallengable posi- 
tion — Sleep-baptism may be by sprinkling. 

Dr. C. puts the passage under consideration with others, 
under the explanatory heading — " To plunge, to immerse, 

to whelm (as in ingulfing floods) in sleep," etc. 

Dr. Conant does not tell us the point of resemblance be- 
tween a city asleep at midnight and " a man plunged in 
ingulfing floods." Until he does, I rather think that the 
world must remain in ignorance on the point. Whatever 



298 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

exposition ne may give, it is quite probable that some 
second Carson will enumerate it as amon^ those cases 
which were " clumsily got over by the help of figure.''* 

Hear a criticism of Carson of Tubbermore : " ' Steep me 
in poverty to the very lips." It is here supposed that 
there is a likeness between being in great poverty, and 
being steeped in water. We cannot say that the likeness 
is faint, for there is no likeness at all." — [Figures of Speech, 
p. 286.) But if no resemblance in such a case, how much 
less in one where gentle sleep confronts plunging into floods. 



13. " But let us not be co-mersed by this grief of his, 
nor be, un observantly, carried away by his tears, as by 
torrents." Heliodorus. 

If any one should think that the mention of "torrents." 
in close connection with mersion, is indicative of an allusion 
to primary use, I would care but little to debate the matter. 
Such rare references would rather strengthen the general 
position, that where there is nothing of the kind men- 
tioned, no allusion is intended. But, in the present case, 
"torrents" are not connected with the mersion, but with 
the "tears." And in determining the relation between 
torrents, we must guard against the extravagance of sup- 
posing tears to be converted into torrents. Such is not 
the point. The resemblance is between the moral effect 
of tears and the physical effect of torrents. The influence 
of tears changes our feelings and purposes, as the influence 
of torrents changes the position of objects encountered. 
The man who is influenced by tears is not supposed to be 
carried away by torrents; but is like, so far as change of 
moral position is concerned, to one who is carried away 
by torrents, so far as physical position is concerned. 

The mersion is by grief, and is indicative of profound 
influence. 

In this case, and in all similar cases, mersion, or baptism, 
represents a complete change of condition. 



BAPTISM OF ASIA. 299 

14. " The relation of your wanderings, often post- 
poned, as you know, because the casualties still mersed 
you, you could not keep for a better opportunity than the 
present. Heliodorus. 

Could any statement be farther removed from a dipping 
or plunging into water? There cannot be a reference to 
an act, for the statement turns on a continuous condition. 
How devoid of all reason would be the idea of a long-con- 
tinued mersion in water of a living man ! That remark- 
able events and casualties of life should exercise, for a 
long time, a controlling influence over our feelings, so that 
we should feel a reluctance to speak of them, is a matter 
of daily experience. This, and not plunging or lying 
drowned in water, is the statement made by Heliodorus. 



15. "Great at Salamis; for there, fighting, he mersed 
all Asia." Heimerius. 

17. " Salamis was the pinnacle of exploits ; where thou 
didst merse Asia." Libanius. 

However bravely the attempt may be made to put " all 
Asia" into the waters of the gulf Argolis, the attempt will 
issue in both a physical and rhetorical failure. Why 
should "all Asia" be dipped, or plunged, or sunk into the 
gulf? All the fleet was not. The mersion of Asia did 
not turn on the mersion of the ships. If not one vessel 
bad been sunk, but every vessel captured and brought 
into port, Asia would have been, equally, mersed. Had 
the battle been fought on the land, in a sandy desert, with 
like issue, Asia would, still, have been mersed. It was 
the triumphant victory, which gave Greece a power com- 
petent to sway a controlling influence over, to merse, Asia. 
Gale would dip a lake into the blood of a frog, because 
he would not acknowledge a secondary meaning to pd-xTm. 
Carson exclaims: "Monstrous perversion of taste!" And 



300 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

all from a denial of the truth, — fMucrm has a secondary 
meaning. Its admission obliterates all idea of a dipping, 
and establishes an effect in the stead of an act. 

When will a second Carson arise, and, with imperial 
utterance, constrain his friends to confess paitri'to, too, has 
a secondary meaning, putting to flight shadowy figures 
and "monstrous perversions of taste"? 

Asia was mersed by " fighting," not by dipping. Con- 
trolling influence changed her condition. 



16. " He exhorts the class of bread-makers to be more 
just, but he did not think it proper to use compulsion, 
fearing the running away of the mass; by which the city 
would, immediately, be mersed, just as a ship, the sailors 
having deserted it." Libanitjs. 



i & 



Two mersions are, here, distinctly stated. The one of 
a city, and the other of a ship. The one by the desertion 
of food-makers, the other by the desertion of the navi- 
gators. Mersion in the one case is said to be just as cer- 
tain as in the other. That the one mersion is like the 
other is a folly not stated. That the one mersion is lik- 
ened to the other, as a dipping, or plunging, or sinking in 
water, is a crude conceit nowhere intimated. There is a 
point in which the two widely different mersions are like ; 
not a likeness dimly seen through the haze of figure, but 
an absolute likeness. The likeness is that of certain ruin. 
A city abandoned by its food-producers will be ruined by 
tumult and famine. A ship abandoned by its navigators 
will be ruined by winds and waves. The nature of the 
baptism in the one case and in the other, is indicated by 
its proximate cause. 

It would be difficult to find a clearer proof passage of 

the existence of the secondary meaning contended for. 

Agreements and differences are best seen when the Ob- 
is 

jects involved can be placed side by side. This is done 
here. And we find that the baptism of an abandoned city, 



BAPTISM OF A CITY. 301 

and the baptism of an abandoned ship, have nothing in 
common, save the being subject to controlling influences issuing 
in destruction. This is the point of likeness stated by Li- 
banins. It is the true, only, and all-sufficient point of con- 
tact between the primary and secondary meaning. 

All attempts to trace resemblances between dippings, 
plungings, and sinkings in water, is as unprofitable as 
ploughing the sand. Bread-makers would baptize the city. 



18. "He who hardly bears the things which he is, al- 
ready, bearing, would be mersed by a small addition." 

LlBANIUS. 

"Where is the person, here, spoken of? On the land or 
in the water? What are the things which he is already 
bearing? Blocks of granite, or masses of pig-iron? If 
he is travelling, or swimming in the water, and bearing a 
hundred weight, a small addition may put him under the 
water; but if he is on the land, and his burden consists 
of intellectual or moral responsibilities and solicitudes, 
then, a very large addition will not transport him to a flood, 
or merse him under its surface; however much it might 
exercise a controlling influence over him. 

Xo comparison is instituted with an overburdened ves- 
sel, but the statement has the most absolute limitation to 
the man and his circumstances. It is their influence, an 
influence to be determined by their nature, which is 
spoken of. A "small addition " may change his condition. 



19. " This is he who having found the miserable Cimon 
mersed and forsaken did not overlook him." Libanius. 

Does the writer intend to picture Cimon as found lying 
under the water, drowned and forsaken ? 

A man who is in distress, beyond what courage and 
hope can contend with, is a mersed man; and would be so 
if there were not a drop of water on our planet. 



302 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

20. " Grief for him mersing the soul and darkening the 
understanding, brings a certain mistiness over the eyes." 

LlBANIUS. 

This is a passage taken from a funeral discourse on Lie 
Emperor Julian. "Whelms the soul" (Conant). Against 
this translation we must enter our protest. Not on the 
ground of merit, but as a Baptist translation. We call 
attention to this translation, because, as used, it is full of 
meaning and an efficient argument for our cause. Dr. 
Conant gives sixty-four quotations, under the head of 
"Tropical or Figurative Sense." Fifty-one of these he 
translates by " whelm." Such a translation is contrary 
to Baptist views, long advocated, and is repudiated by 
Dr. Carson. This fact becomes the more remarkable, 
when it is added, that of eighty-six passages, under the 
caption, " Literal, Physical Sense," there is but a solitary 
case which receives this translation. 

Dr. Conant's work has been too laboriously, and too 
artistically constructed, to permit us to suppose that no 
strong reason underlies these facts. Let me suggest : 
1. Whelm does not answer Baptist views, because they 
have insisted upon an act, a definite act, an act which 
moves the object into the water. But whelm has not 
these characteristics. It expresses a condition ; the result 
of the element coming over its object with uncontrollable 
power. Whelm is, therefore, eschewed by Baptists as rep- 
resenting the " Literal, Physical Sense," and im-merse, 
im-merge, sub-merge, dip, plunge, are pressed into the 
service. 2. These terms, which are made to express, as 
far as possible, forms of action, will not answer for the 
tropical or secondary use; because it exhibits merely con- 
trolling influence, eliminated from the primary, physical 
use, and resort is had to whelm, which does, in like man- 
ner, carry into tropical or secondary use the same idea of 
controlling influence. Dr. Conant, therefore, in rejecting 
im-merse, im-merge, sub-merge, plunge, dip, in the tropi- 
cal use (these words not carrying with them the idea of 



BAPTISM BY GRIEF. 303 

controlling influence), and by adopting the before dis- 
carded term, ichelm (which does carry with it this idea), 
furnishes the most conclusive testimony to the point, that 
fta-r^u, when turned from its primary use, does carry with 
it, and directly express, the secondary meaning of control- 
ling influence. Thus, "grief" is said, in the passage be- 
fore us, to exercise "a controlling influence over the soul, 
darkening the understanding," &c. A physical, whelmed 
condition is induced by other forms of movement than 
flowing. A falling avalanche whelms. "Whatever comes 
upon and rises over constitutes a whelming. !N~or is it 
matter in masses, or fluids in streams, only , that whelms. 
Flakes of snow, particles of sand, drops of water, may 
whelm. The traveller may be whelmed by snow-flakes; 
the caravan may be whelmed by sand particles; and the 
globe may be whelmed by rain-drops. 

Whelm in secondary use rejects, 1. All forms of action; 
2. All varieties of physical material ; 3. All physical cover- 
ing; and adopts, and carries with it into its new domain, 
controlling influence, which is, always, present in every 
case of physical whelming. 

It is because of this truth that Dr. Conant abandons his 
translations in the physical use, and adopts another in 
what he terms figurative use. In so far forth as control- 
ling influence is concerned, baptize and whelm do, very 
completely, measure each other. The nature of this in- 
fluence is determined by its adjunct terms. It may be of 
joy or sorrow, virtue or vice, life or death. "Whatever can 
influence its object controllingly — be it great or small, 
much or little; be it applied to the lips as wine, to the 
eyes as poppy-juice, to the ears in perplexing questions, 
to the heart through joy or grief — whelms, baptizes, 
merses, changes, completely, the condition. 



21. " But the remainder (of the city councils) being 
small, was mersed." » Libaxius. 

This refers to the opposite courses, selfish and unselfish, 



304 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

pursued by the members of the councils in the cities, and 
the issue to the honest few. They were mersed; and 
fidelity to their trust ended in beggary. 

The absolute use of the word, joins, with all other con- 
siderations, to demand a direct and essential value to be 
given to it. The influence brought to bear upon them 
was beyond their control. 



22. " But now, as you see, the matter (of instruction, 
Libanius was a teacher) being mersed, and all the winds 
put in motion against it." Libanius. 

As the context speaks of "sailing," &c, we may sup- 
pose, from the rhetorical embellishment, that the origin 
of the word was present to the writer's mind. There is, 
however, a strong and exclusive forth-putting of the idea 
of controlling influence. 



23. " But you do not announce this want of leisure to 
those giving splendid feasts; but if asked your decision 
concerning any more important matters, you have no 
leisure, but are mersed." Libanius. 

Such free and absolute use of the word is highly indica- 
tive of its being not merely a satellite in the world of 
letters, shining only with borrowed light, but a fixed star, 
having light of its own. If w£ are unable to affix a specific 
character to the general import of the word, as thus abso- 
lutely used (and some question might arise here), still, we 
know, beyond controversy, that some controlling influence 
is referred to. 



24. " But when he does not so continue, being mersed 
by diseases and by arts of wizards." Plotinus. 

"Whelmed either with diseases or with arts of ma- 



BAPTISM BY WIZARD ARTS. 305 

gians" (Conant). Why not in diseases and in magical arts 
as well as " in sleep"? The former is as suitable to repre- 
sent the clement of mersion as the latter. But neither of 
them should do so. It is the agency, the source of in- 
fluence, only, that is spoken of. And what appearance 
of water is there in this statement ? How shall it he* intro- 
duced? What part belongs to "diseases and wizard arts" 
in the picture? Does the unhappy man lie down on the 
sea-shore while diseases and incantations, converted into 
billows, roll over him? Or, is the sufferer to be metamor- 
phosed into a ship, and the scene a naval battle, where he, 
as a ship, goes down under the hostile assaults of disease 
and magic, in the shape of "stones and machines"? The 
picture must be filled up in some such way, if we have a 
picture at all. 

But Dr. Carson says, that "whelming" is no baptism in 
fact, but only I gratia, because whelming is not dipping. 
If Dr. Carson be right, then Dr. Conant bases a figure on 
a figure, which is a very baseless basis. But if Dr. Carson 
be wrong, then his " millenary" honors become imperilled 
among his friends, while they deny his "complete demon- 
stration" that " ftaTzri^aj means nothing but dip." 

I will not say that this very remarkable language of 
Plotinus cannot, by ingenuity or violence, be made to take 
the aspect of figure; for, with "ample verge and room," 
this can be done to almost any language. When Marcus 
Antoninus speaks of a man dtxatoauvr) fiefkipfiivov, Dr. Gale says 
he speaks in figure, and fidnra) has its primary meaning. 
The man is " dipped in justice." Dr. Carson protests 
against this, declaring that /Sarrrw has here a secondary 
meaning, and is used literally, meaning to dye with. Again, 
Dr. Carson says: the sea-coast is baptized, not literally, 
but only by the help of figure; while Prof. Ripley says, 
there is no figure about it, but fiamgat means to overflow. 

Kow, until these most estimable Doctors can airree as 
to what is primary and secondary use, what is literality 
and figure, in the case of these words, they should not 
press their opponents too hardly with the dogmatic asser- 

20 



306 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

tion, that the case before us is figure, and that " diseases 
and wizard arts " represent ocean billows. 



25. "He is praised because he mersed the stewards; 
being not stewards but sharks." Plutarch. 

I do not know the nature of this baptism. I cannot 
say that water had not something to do with it, or every- 
thing, because I have no certain knowledge. The passage, 
as it stands (I am indebted for it to Dr. Conant), does not 
throw a ray of light upon the nature of the baptism. It 
is impossible to tell whether it is primary or secondary, 
literal or figurative. The stewards might have been 
drowned, might have been put to sleep by an opiate, might 
have been made drunk, might have been confounded by an 
expose of their administration, or a dozen other things, 
and the language would apply equally well in either case. 
They would all, alike, be mersions, baptisms. How de- 
lusive is the position, — " One meaning, clear, precise, 
definite, through all Greek literature." Any such word 
could expound itself. But this word cannot. Complete- 
ness of condition is its essential demand. 



26. " Mersed by worldly affairs — we should struggle out 
and try to save ourselves, and reach the harbor." 

Plutarch. 

Rhetorical figure carries the mind back to the circum- 
stances out of which the secondary use sprang. There- 
fore, to insist on introducing shipwreck, struggling, swim- 
ming, reaching a harbor, into every conversational use of 
the word, would be as stilted and as mistaken as to put 
on a state dress to go out and do a day's ploughing. 



27. "Knowing him to be licentious and extravagant, 
and mersed by debts of fifty millions." Plutarch. 



BAPTISM BY DEBT. 307 

" Whelmed with debts amounting to fifty millions" 
(Conant). " Oppressed with a debt of five thousand myr- 
iads" (Carson). 

Conant figures the debts as a mass falling on the debtor, 
or as flowing waters rolling over him. It is entirely wrong, 
according to Carson, to expound ftomnZw as bringing the 
element over the object. The word demands that the 
object be put into the element. Hence the figure which 
he pictures, out of these same materials, is that of a man 
sinking, in still waters, with a millstone around his neck. 
" This debt was not poured upon him, nor poured into 
him; but oppressed by it, as a load, he sunk, or became 
insolvent" " The figure does not represent the mode of 
putting the debt on him, for in this there is no likeness. 
It represents the debt, when on him, as causing him to 
sink." 

Carson forgets that he should make the debt to dip the 
man, not to sink him. But we get used to this slipping 
one word into the place of another, in reading this writer. 
I would, also, call attention to the confusion and error 
arising from the use of "oppress" as the equivalent of 
press. To press and to oppress are very different words. 
The same amount of pressure may cause oppression to 
one man and not to another. Debt or load may press on 
a man, and his ability to bear the one or the other be 
entirely adequate. Debt or load which oppresses a man 
has reached a measure exhaustive of his ability. When, 
therefore, Dr. Carson translates by " oppress," he vin- 
dicates (in like maimer as Conant by his translation, 
"whelm") the point we advocate — namely, a secondary 
use expressive of controlling influence. 

Carson has, heretofore, remarked: "To be dipped in 
debt, supposes that we owe something considerable in 
proportion to our means." In this he is professedly speak- 
ing of the Greek fiaKTi'w, while, really, he is expounding 
the English dip. Dipped, in connection with debt, in Eng- 
lish, implies but a slight indebtedness compared with the 
means to pay; baptized, in the same connection, was used 



808 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

by the Greeks to express indebtedness beyond all means 
to pay. "We may be dipped, in debt, without being 
drowned. The last cannot be adequately represented by 
baptizo, except when circumstances render the meaning 
definite." The reverse of this statement is the truth. A 
man baptized in water is a drowned man, unless there is 
evidence to the contrary; and a man baptized in debt is a 
ruined man, unless there is evidence to the contrary. It is 
very doubtful whether the English language can furnish 
a second book equalling that of Carson in its confusion 
of important words. 

It is not claimed that this mersion is in debts; the dative 
is instrumental, as elsewhere. In every aspect the passage 
vindicates the idea of controlling influence. 



28. "Eager that their children excel, quickly, in all 
things, they impose on them labors beyond measure. . „ „ 
For as plants are nourished by water, in measure, but are 
choked by excess, after the same manner the soul grows 
by labors, in measure, but is mersed by excess." 

Plutasch, 

It is impossible to figure "mersed" as a dipping in water 
without making Plutarch one of the saddest of blunderers. 
" The soul grows by limited labors, but is dipped in water 
by unlimited labors." Is that the way in which the pre- 
ceptor of Trajan harmonized the members of a sentence? 
Certainly he succeeded better in the attempt immediately 
preceding — " Plants are nourished by water in measure, 
but are choked by excess." We cannot consent to an in- 
terpretation of "mersed" which casts shame on this ac- 
complished Greek writer. If he affirms that the influence 
of moderate labor is healthy growth, then he affirms- that 
the influence of excessive labor is unhealthy decay. Mod- 
erate labor is within the power, under the control, and 
made subordinate by the soul, to its advantage; immod- 
erate labor is beyond the power, not subject to the control 



BAPTISM BY STUDY. 309 

of the soul, but subordinates the soul to itself, and injures 
or destroys it. To express such controlling influence, 
Plutarch employs the term in question. 

Carson thus comments-: " Mr. Ewing says, < the refer- 
ence here to the nourishment of plants indicates pouring, 
only, to be the species of watering alluded to in the term.' 
But in this figure there is no reference at all to the mode 
of watering plants. The reference is to the quantity of 
water. The mode is not mentioned; but even were it 
mentioned, it would merely be a circumstance to which 
nothing corresponds in the thing illustrated. What critic 
would ever think of hunting after such likeness in figur- 
ative language? There is, actually, no likeness between 
the mode of watering plants and the proportioning of 
labor to the mind of a pupil; and Plutarch is not guilty 
of such absurdity. To Plutarch's figure it would be quite 
the same thing, if a pot of plants was dipped into water, 
instead of having the water poured into it. The pot itself 
might be dipped into water without any injury to the 
plants. The plants are injured when the water is suffered 
to lie about them in too great abundance, in whatever way 
it has been applied. The choking of the plant corresponds 
to the suffocation in baptism or immersion. The choking 
of the powers of the mind is elegantly illustrated by the 
choking of the vegetable powers when a plant is covered 
in water. There is a beautiful allusion to the suffocation 
of an animal under water. Were Plutarch to arise from 
the dead, with what indignation would he remonstrate 
against the criticism that makes him to refer to the mode, 
of watering plants, in a figure intended to illustrate the 
bad effects of too much study! How loudly would he 
disclaim the cold, unnatural thought! Is it not possible 
to illustrate, figuratively, something by a reference to the 
mountains buried under the snow, without referring to the 
manner of its falling, and pursuing the resemblance to the 
flakes of the feathered snow? So far from this, I assert, that 
this manner of explaining figures is universally improper. 
Ko instance could be more beautifully decisive in our 



310 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

favor than the above figure of Plutarch. Mr. Ewing 
makes him compare the choking of one thing to the over- 
whelming of another. But the author himself compares 
the choking of a plant, or the extinction of vegetable life, to 
the choking or extinction of the mental powers; and in both 
there is an elegant allusion to the choking of an animal 
under water." 

In this interpretation Carson abandons dip, all act, and 
makes the solution turn on effect, a doctrine which he 
reprobated in Gale and Cox. This effect results from 
" water lying about" the plants. But can " dip" produce 
any such effect? Besides, it is not the "lying about," 
whether by pouring or any other way, with which the 
sentiment has to do; but the consequent result, the in- 
fluence proceeding from such a condition. It is that de- 
structive influence, and not a mersed condition, any more 
than the form of the act, inducing such condition, of which 
Plutarch speaks. Carson cannot interpret the passage 
without an utter abandonment of that meaning, of which, 
he says, he has made a " complete demonstration." 

Compare the views here announced with those on the 
baptism of taxes. "In this figure the rulers are supposed 
to immerse the people. The literal translation is — < they do 
not immerse the people with taxes.' The people, in such 
figure, sink by being weighed down with taxes. They 
cause the people to sink by their weight. It is a deep 
water in which we sink. To sink by debt, figures the 
debt as a load on our shoulders, while we are in deep 
water. A man struggling for life in deep water, and at 
last sinking by exhaustion, is a true picture of an insolvent 
debtor." 

Thus we see, when Dr. Carson can lay his hands on 
immersing, sinking, plunging, or struggling, in water, whether 
lawfully or unlawfully, he works them into figure with a 
will. But when the act is pour, why, then, to base inter- 
pretation on that, is enough to stir old Plutarch in his 
grave, and put a tongue between his crumbling teeth to 
cry out in indignation. When the act by which a baptism 



BAPTISM BY STUDY. 311 

takes place is, or is supposed to be, dipping, plunging, 
sinking, mode is everything, and ^antiZio denotes modal 
act; but when the act of baptism is pour, then, "it is 
nought, it is nought," cries the controversialist; and 
$a.T-l*u} has nothing to do with the act; everything is con- 
centred in effect, resultant condition, water lying about the 
plants, and consequent choking influence ! 

When it is claimed that hot iron may be cooled by pour- 
ing water upon it, Carson is indignant that "the usual 
mode" should be disregarded. When it is pleaded that 
u the usual mode" of watering plants is by pouring, why, 
then, the pot can be just as well dipped ! 

The choking or extinction of the mental powers is com- 
pared to the " choking of a plant." Plutarch does not say 
one syllable about the choking of the mental powers, and 
the introduction of the word is a surreptitious abandon- 
ment of the claimed figure, dipped in water, for the in- 
fluence which results from a mersion. And as for the 
elegant allusion in "the soul mersed by excessive labor" 
to an " animal suffocating under water," Plutarch will not 
be indignant at such an allusion being, most gratuitously, 
attributed to him, for Plutarch, alas, is dead! But Dr. 
Carson thinks that no likeness can be pointed out between 
an act and an effect. We are glad to hear him say so. 
How it happens that he has undertaken to point out the 
resemblance between the act of baptism (mode and nothing 
but mode) and the effect of debt, taxes, grief, sleep, wine 
drinking, &c, &c, we will not attempt to explain. He 
says : " Plutarch is not guilty of such absurdity." Put 
another name for Plutarch, and will the commission of 
the absurdity be wisdom ? 

Whether we regard the passage itself, or its attempted 
exposition by those who would expound it as a water 
figure, we are shut up to the conclusion that controlling 
influence proceeding from excessive mental labor, is what 
is, only and directly, stated. 



312 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 



29. " The Io-Bacchus was sung in feasts and sacrifices 
of Bacchus, mersed with much wantonness." Proclus. 



"Im-bathed with much wantonness" (Conant). Bap- 
tist translators have a remarkable penchant for compound- 
ing the translation of /SawnO as in im-merse, im-merge, 
sub-merge, over-whelm, zm-bathe, when there is no cor- 
responding feature in the original. 

It is, somewhat, remarkable that the power of the dative 
should assert itself as agency contrary to the tendency 
of the use of zm-bathe to convert it into the mersing ele- 
ment. Milton's language, probably, helped to this result. 
In " imbathe, " dipping, plunging, sinking, all disappear. 
The cherished dogma, u mode, and nothing but mode," 
has utterly vanished. Im-bathe has not the strength of 
an infant to put its object in anything. It may, but does 
not necessarily, envelop its object. It has extremely lim- 
ited use in application to physical elements, and I do not 
know that it is found in such use out of poetry. Im- 
bathe and bathe-in are no more equivalent, in use and 
meaning, than are op-press and press-on. Imbathe and 
oppress refer, almost exclusively, to things and influences 
which are un-physical. When Dr. Conant translates by 
the very unusual word " imbathe," (unusual, I mean, in 
his translations), he does, again, establish the position that 
the usage we are examining is declarative of controlling 
influence. 

He quotes Milton : " And the sweet odor of the return- 
ing gospel imbathe his soul with the fragrancy of heaven." 
The soul is not put into this heavenly fragrance, but it 
comes upon the soul, and communicates to it its delights 
aboundingly. A passage more parallel in sentiment mav 
be found in Spenser : 

" That nigh his manly hart did melt away, 
Bathed in wanton blis and wicked joy." 

Imbathe always implies influence from the element or 
agency imbathing. Milton gives an illustration :' . 



BAPTISM BY WANTONNESS. 313 

" Bearing her straight to aged Nereus' hall, 
Who, piteous of her woes, rear'd her lank head, 
And gave her to his daughters to imbathe 
In nectar'd lavers strew ; d with asphodel, 
And through the porch and inlet of each sense 
Dropt in ambrosial oils till she revived, 
And underwent a quick immortal change." 

Comus, 835-41. 

Hence, when Dr. Conant says this is "the corresponding 
English word," there is much truth in it, so far as this 
secondary use is concerned; but very little so far as the 
primary use is concerned ; as the facts abundantly show. 



30. "But when she (Philosophy) sees me mersed by 
grief and carried away into tears, she is displeased." 

Themistius. 

"Whelmed by grief and moved to tears " (Conant). In 
translating elq ddxpua xara<pep6/x^o> — " moved to tears" — is it 
designed to treat this as figure? Is "tears" to be repre- 
sented as a town some distance off, to which "move" 
carries Themistius ? Or, is xara<p£p6/j.e>ov a rushing torrent, 
bearing the mourner for his father into some gulf or bay 
denoted by " tears"? Does any one say, " this is inexcus- 
able ridicule." I answer, it is just such exposition as this 
that Carson treats us to when he represents Egypt flooded 
with water, and its inhabitants sinking in the flood with 
loads upon their backs labelled "taxes." Or, debtors 
floundering in deep water, and going down under the 
burden of unreceipted bills. 

If "moved to tears" is an everyday phrase, well under- 
stood as directly expressive of a change in feeling under 
some powerful influence, which it becomes an imper- 
tinence to expound, soberly, as figure denoting a change 
in locality ; by what law is it that " mersed by grief" is 
excluded from the same just method of interpretation? 

" Mersed by grief" was as familiar phraseology to the 



314 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

Greeks, expressive of the controlling influence of sorrow, 
as is " moved to tears" familiar to us, as expressive of a 
change of feeling under tender influences. While the 
origin of hoth is obvious, frequent use has given to each 
a direct power of expression which at once carries thought 
to the mind without any, the least, reversion to a pri 
mary use. 

These phrases justly claim our recognition of them in 
this their acquired character. 

WHAT IS IN PROOF? 

Having seen exemplified by numerous passages — (1.) 
Simple intusposition without influence ; (2.) Intusposition 
accompanied with influence ; (3.) Intusposition for the sake 
of influence — we have, now, very conclusive evidence for, 
(4.) Influence without intusposition. 

That such a change is no novelty in the history of lan- 
guage is evident: 

1. From an analogous change in pdimo. This word, orig- 
inally, meant to dip. By dipping into coloring matter the 
object became colored; hence, came the secondary mean- 
ing to dye, in which the original act, dip, was laid aside, and 
the resultant influence of the act, color, was retained. 

2. By a similar change in steep. The primary use of 
this word requires intusposition within a fluid, for the 
purpose of giving or receiving thorough influence. In 
this respect it is quite identical with the third class above 
mentioned. But steep does, in usage, lay aside this intus- 
position, both as of fact and of figure, retaining only the 
idea of fulness of influence. Witness the following : 

" The soveraine weede betwixt two marbles plaine 
Shee pownded small, and did in peeces bruze ; 
And then atweene her lilly handes twaine 
Into his wound the juice thereof did scruze ; 
And round about, as she could well it uze, 
The flesh therewith she suppled and did steepe." 

F. Q. iii, 5. 



BAPTISM WITHOUT INTUSPOSITION. 315 

Also this : 

'.' But faire Priscilla (so that lady hight) 
Still, by her wounded love did watch all night, 
And all the night for bitter anguish weepe, 
And with her tears his wounds did wash and steepe. ' ' 

F. Q. vi, 3. 

3. If this usage were originally tropical, it is an uneon- 
troverted point, that tropical use may become literal. 

4. It is impossible to make these passages figure simple 
intusposition. With this they have no shadow of sym- 
pathy. Every letter sends forth a ringing cry of influence. 
It must, then, be intusposition for influence. But if so, 
then we must rack our invention for an element (for none 
is stated) appropriate to each case. The idea of making 
water the element into which these varied agencies merse 
their objects, is sheerest nonsense. 

5. There is no escape from influence under any inter- 
pretation. We claim it proved that fiaxrgio, absolute or 
with appropriate case, in unphysical relations, expresses 

CONTROLLING INFLUENCE without intusposition* 



316 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

CONTKOLLING INFLUENCE— SPECIFIC. 

WITH OR WITHOUT INTUSPOSITION. 

SECONDARY USE. 

There are some tnings which exert over certain objects 
a definite and unvarying influence. Whenever, therefore, 
PaKT&ui is employed to denote the relation between such 
agencies and their objects, it no longer expresses a merely 
general influence, or one which, while receiving some 
coloring, still admits a varied application; but gives de- 
velopment, in the completest manner, to that specific in- 
fluence which belongs to the case in hand. The specific 
influence exerted by water over a human being put within 
it, is to drown. The specific influence of wine, freely drunk, 
is to intoxicate. The specific influence of an opiate is to 
stupefy. The specific symbol, influence of pure water, or 
sea water, used in religious rites, is to purify. 

The rising sun does not more surely, or more necessarily, 
bring with it light, than does this Greek word, in such re- 
lations, bring with it the specific conceptions of induced 
drowning, drunkenness, stupefaction, and purification. 
And it would be just as necessary and suitable to call in 
the help of an old broom to aid the sun in clearing away 
the mists of night, as to call in the help of figure to 
illumine a usage which is so perfectly self-resplendent. 

This usage justifies, in the fullest manner, the conclusion 
founded on the preceding passages, and goes beyond them, 
in that it justifies and enables us to employ specific terms, 
which definitely embody the influence in question, as the 
most legitimate translation of the word, used absolutely, 
or, of a phrase, with which it is in living union. 

Some passages justifying this view will, now, be pre- 
sented. 



SPECIFIC INFLUENCE. 317 



SPECIFIC INFLUENCE. 

1. *Hv ru) auTa> <papij.dy.aj zarafia-riffaq. 

Achilles Tatius, Leuc. and Clit., ii, 31. 

2. Btzfia-rlaOcu tz tu~j dxpara) . . . duxs'cri. 

Athenaius; Philos. Banq., v, 64. 

3. Elz iXeuOipav a<p7 { X£V fta-riaaq ippwpi>ojq. 

Athenceus ; Philos. Banq., ix, 44. 

4. "Oivoj ds ~oXXu~) 'AAigav&pov patriaaaa. Conon; Narrat., L. 

5. Ba-riZst d'v-vcp yetrovt too Oavdroo. Evenus Paros ; Epigr., xv. 

6. "Ydare ,3airrt^£Tat . . . udart za-aefcffOh. Homeric Alleg n p. 495. 

7. KapTjfapouvzc xa\ j3£ l 3aizTt(Tfj.i^aj k'or/.s. Lucian ; Bacchus, vii. 

8. 'Autos li/j} raiv %Okq ftsfto.-T«j;j.ivajv. Plato ; Banquet, iv. 

9. Kai iyuj yvobq pa-TiX,6rxsvov to pecpdxiov. Plato ; Euthedemus vii. 

10. Ba-riXovTsq ix tzlOujv [isydXojv . . . -pol-v;o\>. 

Plutarch ; Alexander, Ivii. 

11. KpaixaXujai yap ezt to yOi^ov xdi $z$a~Ti<Tixlvoi$. 

Plutarch; Water and Land Anim., xxiii. 

12. Ebxpaaia ad);xaToq afia-T'MTou xai kXaarpoo. Plutarch) Banq., vi. 

13. To dl awixa . . . ij.r~.aj jSsfia-T'.cr/xiyov. li " iii ? 8. 

14. Ba-Ti^etv tov Aiovuffffov ~poq Tr t v OdXazTav. " PhyS- Ques., X. 

15. Kai pd-TiGov (jsauTov It- QaXafffrav^ Plutarch; Superstition, iii. 

1. AYbom having de-mersed by the same drug. Achilles Tatius. 

2. You seem to be mersed by unmixed wine. Athencerus. 

3. Then, mersing powerfully, he set me free. " 

4. Having . mersed Alexander by much wine. Conon. 

5. Merses by a sleep, neighbor of death. . . Evenus. 

6. Merses by water. . . . quenched by water. Homeric Alleg. 

7. Eesembles one heavyheaded and mersed. Lucian 

8. I myself am of those mersed yesterday. . Plato. 

9. I knowing the youth to have been mersed. " 

10. Mersing out of great wine-jars, drank to one another. 

Plutarch. 

11. Crippled and mersed by yesterday's debauch. " 

12. A good temperament of the body, immersed and active. 

Plutarch. 

13. But the body not yet mersed. ... " 

14. To merse Bacchus at the sea. ... " 

15. And merse thyself, (going) to the sea. . " 



318 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

SPECIFIC INFLUENCE. 
STUPEFACTION. 

" Satyrus had somewhat left of the drug by which he 
had put Conops to sleep. Of this, while serving us, he 
pours, secretly, into the last cup which he brought to 
Panthia. She, rising, went into her chamber and imme- 
diately slept. But Leucippe had another chamber servant, 
whom, having mersed by the same drug, Satyrus comes 
to the doorkeeper, at the third door; and him he cast down 
by the same potion." Achilles Tatius. 

Four cases are here presented, with varying phraseology, 
in which the work of stupefaction is accomplished by an 
opiate drug. 

Are these cases all spoken of under the form of figure? 
Are some presented in figurative dress, and some in 
literal attire? Or, are all spoken of with a simple, prosaic 
literality ? 

If all are figure, by what figure are Conops and Panthia 
put to bed? Does the drug, under figure, perform the 
office of a chamberlain ? 

And by what figure is the doorkeeper " cast down " to 
the ground? Does the drug, here, represent an expert 
in wrestling, or a bludgeon, or what? And Leucippe's 
handmaid, by what figure is she "whelmed" (Conanf), 
or dipped, as Carson would insist? Does this drug, now 
(chameleon-like), take the shape of a " mountain wave," 
or "a rushing torrent," or a weighty bale of "'pothecary 
stuff," like unto the bales of "taxes" and "debts," &c, 
which we have seen baptizing, whelming, dipping, sinking 
so many heretofore ? 

If this view is not satisfactory, is there a mixture of the 
literal and figurative ? And who is to take the responsi- 
bility of this clay-iron style of writing? In the absence 
of Tatius, I, as his nearest friend, beg that it may be laid 
at some other door than his. 



BAPTISM BY A DRUG. 319 

Most persons will see, in this passage, a very uncmbel- 
lished statement of the controlling influence of this drug: 
and as it was soporific in its nature, always producing one 
definite effect, they will recognize the propriety of trans- 
lating the word which represents this influence by the 
specific term — to stupefy. 

DRUNKENNESS. 

"You seem to me, O convivialists! to be flooded, be- 
yond expectation, with impetuous words, and to be mersed 
by unmixed wine." Athenveus. 

The description of the wine, which causes this mersion, 
as " unmixed," determines, in the most absolute manner, 
that no physical " whelming" or " dipping" is in the mind 
of the writer. As it is of no consequence to a drowned 
man whether it is salt water or fresh water that drowns 
him, so it is of no consequence, in a physical mersion, 
whether mixed or unmixed wine be used. But when the 
influence of wine, as an intoxicating drink, is in question, 
then it is a matter of prime importance whether it is the 
one or the other. As Athenseus lays emphasis on the wine 
as without any mixture of water, he could only intend to 
express its fullest intoxicating power. Unmixed wine, 
freely used by convivialists, invariably produces one effect 
— makes drunk — therefore, the word which embodies such 
intoxicating influence may, with the highest propriety, be 
translated by the specific word expressive of drunkenness. 



" Then mersing, powerfully, he set me free." 

Athen^us. 

" The servant girl, describing the effect of a cup of wine, 
given by her master, says : ' Then whelming potently he 
set me free.'" (Conant.) 

Dr. Conant, in making ftaTritraq express an " effect," be- 
comes exposed to the charge of treason to the cause, as 
brought by Dr. Carson. "Potently" is not a proper quali- 



320 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

tying term for dipping; nor for whelming, or rnersing, or 
baptizing, in primary use. The agency may be potent, 
but not the condition. It is, entirely, proper as character- 
izing the secondary use, expressive of controlling influence. 
A specific translation, here, is more than justified. 



4. " Thebe exhorted to the murder, and having mersed 
and put to sleep Alexander, by much wine, she dismisses 
the guards of the bedchamber under pretext of using the 
bath, and called the brothers to the work." Conon. 

" Having immersed Alexander in wine — that is, having 
made him drunk with wine" (Carson). 

This translation shows the intenseness of theory, while 
it exposes its error. 

1. " Immersed." This word is, professedly, used as 
synonymous with dip. This profession is never carried 
out in practice, nor can ever be. Here, as in unnum- 
bered other places, dip is slipped out and immerse is 
slipped in, because the former would not answer the 
purpose. To " dip any one in wine," for the purpose of 
representing a state of drunkenness, is figure which no 
thoughtful person ever employed. (1.) Because of incon- 
I sistency. Hipping causes but a trivial effect, while drunk- 
enness is one of power. (2.) Because of want of adapta- 
tion. Nothing is made drunk by being put into wine. 

But "immerse" is as unsuitable, for other reasons, as 
dip. No one insists more strongly than Carson that the 
whole person, in baptism, must go within the element, 
consequently, Alexander must go, head and ears, within 
the wine; and when there, he must stay there long enough 
to imbibe the intoxicating qualities of the element. How 
long this will take I cannot say; but quite probably before 
he gets drunk he will have got drowned. Such a case 
shows the Baptist error of confounding a dipping with a 
baptism. The qualities of wine cannot be extracted by a 
dipping, if they may by a baptism. It shows, also, the 



BAPTISM BY WINE. 321 

essential error of a figure which represents drunkenness 
by immersing a living being in wine, A condition which has 
no tendency to make drunk, hut which must drown. 

2. "Much wine." Much is, significantly, omitted in the 
translation. It lias no fitness in announcing a physical 
mersion. What matters it whether Alexander were physi- 
cally merscd in " much wine" or not? There is no signifi- 
cance in any quantity beyond what will barely suffice. 
Dr. Carson felt this, and throws it out. But this word is, 
eminently, significant, if the writer means directly to ex- 
press a state of intoxication. " Much wine" gives empha- 
sis to the influence exerted. 

3. " In wine." The introduction of m, localizing the 
tyrant of Pheroe within the wine, is an error resulting 
from the previous error in the form of act attributed to 
the verb. If dip (or its claimed equivalent, immerse) be 
associated with a fluid, that fluid necessarily becomes the 
element, and if no appropriate preposition is furnished, 
one must be supplied. This Dr. Carson has found it ne- 
cessary to do. Error begets error. This construction, with 
its translation, it is important to notice. 

In the phrase, Ipd-rzro S'atfiart Xifivrj, the translation turns 
on the meaning assigned to the verb. Take the old Bap- 
tist position — ^d-rw has but one meaning, to dip — and, of 
necessity, " the lake becomes dipped in blood." It is all 
idle to talk about rhetoric, bad taste, instrumental dative, 
and such like things, so long as the prime error is sus- 
tained. Abandon this error; admit that fid-ntto has a second- 
ary meaning in which no form of act appears, and every 
other error is carried with it. And, then, we have — "the 
lake dyed by blood." What a difference! The rectifica- 
tion of one word works the change. Color takes the place 
of the form of an act; instrumentality takes the place of 
locality; and literality takes the place of figure. 

Yv"e, thus, see what vital issues depend on the right de- 
termination of the value of pa—i'w. Has it " but one 

21 



322 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

meaning through all Greek literature — mode and nothing 
hut mode — to dip " ? Or, is it devoid of all modal action — 
demanding a condition of intusposition ? And does it, 
with a parallelism to fid-~aj, lay aside this primary demand 
for intusposition, and substitute for it a demand, only, for 
controlling influence, which attends on some phases of in- 
tusposition, as dyeing on some cases of dipping? Apply 
the one view, or the other, to a passage, quite parallel to 
that just mentioned — onvm rijv Mtv ifidhmZov — and "plunged 
the city in sleep," is the translation promptly offered by 
the advocates of the first view. It is all in vain to plead 
against the use of a term expressive of violence in connec- 
tion with "sleep. It is vain to speak of the questionable 
rhetoric which picks up a city to plunge it into sleep. It 
is equally in vain to plead for instrumentality in the dative. 
The ear is deaf. It is filled, to repletion, with "one mean- 
ing, modal action, dip, plunge." Accept the alternative 
view, and — "the city is thoroughly influenced by sleep." So 
long as the old error in defining /Sd^rw is fastened on to 
paxT£a>, we must have errors of conception and translation 
in the latter word paralleling those, now abau cloned, which 
mark the history of the former word. 

Carson dips, plunges, immerses Alexander in wine, in- 
stead of allowing him to be " influenced (made drunk) by 
wine." He might as well have allowed Gale to dip the 
lake in blood, and not have insisted on its being influenced 
(dyed) by blood. 

Interpretation. — After having, most loyally, paid trib- 
ute to theory and system by introducing modal act and 
figure into his translation, Carson adds — " that is having" 
made him, drunk with wine." With this admission of the 
meaning, and with the admission of Conant (in his trans- 
lation, "whelmed with wine"), that there was no dipping, 
even in the figure, we may be satisfied that we do not 
greatly err in the position that influence is directly ex- 
pressed, and as that influence can take but one form, the 
translation is faithful which says, "having made Alexander 
drunk by much wine." 



BAPTISM BY WINE. 323 

This baptism claims attention in other aspects : 

1. A physical, fluid element was present in the baptism 
and causative of it, while there was no physical mersion in 
this physical element. The idea of a figurative mersion 
in the wine drunk is untenable in every aspect. Carson 
would not put Otho in his debts; why will he put Alex- 
ander in his cups, or in his casks? But enough of figure. 
ISTo one pretends that "the Tyrant" was physically dipped, 
mersecl, or drowned. And yet a fluid element was present, 
was operative, and there was no physical mersion in it, or 
in anything else, although we are told by controversialists, 
"Alexander was dipped, immersed in much wine." 

2. There was a baptism, it was caused by this fluid, yet 
not by it as a fluid. 

The causative power of wine to effect this baptism was 
not its character as a liquid, but as possessed of an intoxicat- 
ing quality. The exercise of this quality over the husband 
of Thebe did, in the estimation and absolute language of 
the Greeks, baptize him — merse him — as really and truly 
as if, instead of being laid in his chamber, he had been 
laid in the lowest cavern of the sea. The nature of the 
baptisms differs : the reality is equal. 

3. The mode of using this baptizing element was by 
drinking. 

Thus is its power to baptize developed. The skin is 
bapted by the rays of the sun falling on it. The intellect 
and the body are baptized by draughts from the wine-cup. 

4. Symbol wine baptism may be set forth by sprinkling 
the intoxicating element. 

" Poure out the wine without restraint or stay; 
Poure not by cups, but by the belly full ; 
Poure out to all that wall, 

And sprinkle all the posts and wals with wine, 
That they may sweat, and drunken be withal." 

Spenser, Epithalamion. 



324 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

5. " Bacchus — wine — merses by sleep, the neighbor of 
death." Etenus. 

"Plunges in sleep, neighbor of death" (Concent). This 
form- of translation differs, both remarkably and unaccount- 
ably, from the very uniform translation adopted in other 
cases, identical in spirit and in grammatical structure. I 
give the translation of all the passages from classical 
writers, containing the simple dative, under the head, 
" Figurative Sense/' in Dr. Conant's classification. 

1. " Whereby" (i. e. hj which desertion) " the city would 
have been whelmed." 2. ''Whelmed by the calamity." 3. 
" Whelmed with such a multitude of evils." 4. " Whelmed 
by anger." 5. " Whelm the common people with taxes." 
6. "Whelmed with debts." 7. "Overwhelmed by such 
as are excessive." 8. " Whelmed with undiluted wine." 
9. "Whelmed with much wine." 10. " Imbathed with 
much wantonness." 11. " Whelmed with him in his grief." 
12. " When midnight had plunged the city in sleep." 

Thus, in every passage (but one, and in that relating to 
sleep), the translation is by whelm, and with the preposi- 
tions (by, with) expressive of instrumentality. " Plunge H 
sleep" is not only out of harmony with Dr. Conant's trans- 
lations, but with the facts of nature. Dr. Cox complains 
of opponents translating by plunge, because that word ex- 
presses " suddenness- and violence." But neither " mid- 
night" nor "wine" does "suddenly" or "violently" 
plunge into sleep. Midnight perfects what earlier hours 
of the night have been steadily bringing on. Wine does 
not, primarily, induce sleep; that is a secondary result; 
therefore, it cannot be characterized as sudden or violent. 

It is very clear, both on general views of the meaning 
of the word and the special features of the case, that 
"plunge" has no right to appear here. Dismissing it, 
then we have no difficulty in recovering " sleep" from its 
false position as element, and instating it in its true posi- 
tion, as an instrument in the hands of Bacchus. 



BAPTISM BY SLEEP. 325 

The alliance of a drunken sleep with death is founded 
in nature. 

u Ne would he suffer Sleepe once thether-ward 
Approch, albe his drowsy den were next; 
For next to Death is Sleepe to be compared; 

Therefore his house is unto his annext." Spenser. 



6. " Since, now, a mass of iron, pervaded with fire, 
drawn out of the furnace, is mersed by water, and the 
heat, by its own nature quenched by water, ceases." 

Homeric Allegories. 

" Since the mass of iron, drawn red-hot from the fur- 
nace, is plunged in water" (Conant). 

1. It is as certain as anything in philology, that " plunge," 
distinctively, as expressing a form of action, does not define 
$<nrc&<i>. To overflow, as expressing a form of action, is as 
near the contradictory of plunge as it can well be; yet 
overflow is used by Baptist scholars to define this Greek 
word. And in such use overflow performs its duty, to say 
the least, as faithfully as does plunge. But it is a philo- 
logical axiom, that where two differing forms of action 
can be employed in the exposition of the same word, such 
word can be, strictly, defined by neither. 

Plunge has no right to appear as the critical representa- 
tive of t 3a-riZio. And in any case of baptism where the form 
of act is not expressly stated (it can never be learned from 
the word itself), it is entirely inexcusable for any one to 
bring forward the form of an act, insist upon its autocratic 
rights, and fashion the phraseology after its model. 

Xo argument can be grounded on the assumption of a 
plunging. 

2. The simple dative, with parM*™, announces, with au- 
thority, the presence of agency and not of element. 

There is, therefore, no authority in udan ^a-zi^erat for 
saying that hot iron is " plunged in water." If it is urged, 



326 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

in defence, that water is capable of receiving hot iron by 
plunging; this is freely admitted. If it is urged, "hot 
iron is very frequently, in fact, plunged in water," this, 
too, is unhesitatingly admitted. And after all else can 
be said, the reply is short and crushiug — 1. BaTtxi^m says 
nothing about plunging. 2. Hot iron may be mersed in 
other ways than by plunging. 3. The phraseology indi- 
cates the agency by which, and not the element in which, 
the result is accomplished. Eational discussion must here 
end. 

Wine is capable of having an object "plunged in it;" 
yet Dr. Conant does not say that Alexander was plunged 
in it, in fact," but whelmed by it. A soporific potion is ca- 
pable of having an object plunged in it; yet Dr. Conant 
does not say that Leucippe's maid was so treated; but 
whelmed with it. 

3. A fluid element may be used, as an agency, in baptism, 
and accomplish such baptism, without involving the baptized ob- 
ject in a physical mersion. 

This is a vital position, and, if made good, carries every- 
thing with it. In support of it, now, I observe :(l.yWine, 
a fluid element, has already been seen, as an agency, to 
effect a baptism without any phj^sical mersion. " But this 
was figurative, and mersion is supposed to be in it." This 
is an error. First. There is no sign of any such figure. 
Second. The wine is used as agency, and not as element. 
Third. The physically mersing quality of the fluid has noth- 
ing to do with the baptism. It is, exclusively, its intoxi- 
cating quality and the introduction of its physical quality is 
a huge blunder. When Alexander was brought, through 
the intoxicating principle, into a drunken condition, he was 
baptized. Call this figure, if you will; it was baptism by 
a fluid element, in which its nature as a fluid had no con- 
cern. A distinctive principle, which is itself devoid of 
covering qualities, performed the baptism. Wine baptizes 
by its intoxicating principle solely; robbed of this it ceases to 
baptize. Baptize is applied to the case, not because of 



BAPTISM BY WATER WITHOUT INTUSPOSITION. 327 

any physical investiture of the object, real or supposed, but 
because of a controlling influence. 

2. An opiate potion, a fluid element, has, also, been seen 
to effect a baptism without any physical mersion. As in 
the case of wine, the fluid character of the agency had 
nothing to do with the baptism. No one has suggested 
" plunging" the doorkeeper into the potion to put him to 
sleep; and into the wine to make him drunk. Why not? 
A man put into the " elixir of opium" would as soon be 
put to sleep, as one put into a wine-cup, or cask, would be 
made drunk. And both would be put into that long sleep 
wdiich "knows no waking." But the physically mersing 
quality of this drug-potion has nothing to do with the case. 
It is limited, solely, to the soporific principle. Had the 
drug been in the form of a pill, it would have baptized 
equally well. But what, then, would have become of the 
figure by which the baptized are to be " plunged in " a pill? 
The somnific quality of a potion drunk exhausts its bap- 
tizing power. Fluidity is an accident, a mere vehicle of 
the controlling influence. 

( 3) Water, by its deintoxicating qualit} r , when mixed 
with wine, baptizes wine. Does it do so by any physically 
mersing quality? All such notion, through figure or fact, 
is put to flight by such a baptism. 

(4.) Dr. Fuller admits a case of baptism by water where 
the drenching qualities of water took the place of physical 
mersion. I do not enter into the case, because it is outside 
of classic writers; but I glance at the admitted existence 
of a case parallel with those in hand, and uniting to prove, 
that a quality of a fluid developed in a controlling degree 
over its object, is legitimately termed a baptism. Dr. 
Fuller retreats from the ruins of his falling system with 
the cry — " The writer is one of the most impassioned of 
men!" 

( 5.) The passage before us sustains the position. Water 
has many qualities besides that which adapts it for physical 



328 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

envelopment. It will make very wet, as in Dr. Fuller's case, 
when poured on profusely ; it will make unintoxicating when 
poured in wine ; and it will make cold when poured on hot 
iron. And all these cases of controlling influence, apart 
from physical envelopment, the Greeks called baptisms. 

Heraclides Ponticus (if the writer of the passage) gives 
an allegorical representation of Mars, Vulcan, and Nep- 
tune, under the symbols, Iron, Fire, and Water. Mars 
(iron) is held under the power of Vulcan (lire); but Vulcan 
being brought under the power of ISTeptune (water), Mars 
is set at liberty. 

The point involved in this representation is not whether 
water can physically merse iron, but the relation between 
heat and water. The writer says that heat is of such a 
nature that it is mastered, mersed, completely controlled 
by water. This is not true of cold iron. Cold iron may be 
mersed in water ; but this mersion is essentially different 
from the mersion of hot iron by water. The one is simply 
a mersion of position. Iron may be mersed a thousand 
years in water and not be influenced by it. The other is 
a mersion of influence. This has nothing to do with posi- 
tion. Hot iron is mastered, subdued, influentially bap- 
tized, robbed of its heat, by water, however brought in 
contact with it. Let it be remembered that it is the*rela- 
tion of water and heat, and not of water and iron, which 
is involved. The live chicken of the Roman poet was 
mersed by wine through mersion in wine, because the 
influence desired (drowning) could not be secured in any 
other way. Alexander was mersed by wine, not by mers- 
ing in wine; because the influence desired could not be 
secured in this way. It was not designed to have the 
physically mersing quality in drowning; but its influentially 
mersing quality in making drunk. Therefore, Alexander 
was not mersed in the wine, but the wine was mersed in 
Alexander. It was, only, thus that he could be mersed 
by wine. 

Hot iron, when desired to be brought into a state of 
coldness, may be mersed by water by being mersed in 



BAPTISxM BY WATER WITHOUT INTUSPOSITION. 329 

water; or, if the iron be hollow, by mersing the water in 
the iron; or, if solid, by pouring the water over it; or, by 
sprinkling the water upon it. It is a matter of the most 
absolute indifference how the water is applied ; fia-TiZu 
claims no control over it, and is infinitely indifferent to it. 
Although physical bodies are embraced in the transaction, 
still, physical mersion is not at issue; but the quality of 
water to induce a condition of coldness in a heated body. No 
one will say, that to induce this, physical intusposition is 
necessary. Mersion by water, and mersion in water, are 
two vastly different statements. Mersion by wine, and 
mersion in w r ine, are equally at variance. Mersion by a 
soporific draught, and mersion in a soporific draught, 
idiocw, only, could confound. 

Ileraclides does not say one syllable about a mersion in 
water. He says, that "red hot iron mersed by water" — 
brought under the cold-inducing quality of water — " the 
heat is quenched by the water, and ceases." 

The use of the w T ord must not be made the occasion of 
error. Ba-r^(o, second, must neither be deprived of its 
peculiar rights and privileges, nor made responsible for 
duties which belong exclusively to fiaTzzgu), first. Ba-z^w, 
like fidTzrw, is geminal. For a very long time the distinct 
personality of the second w T as denied, and merged in the 
first. Whenever the second pdnTw appeared he was made, 
will or nill, to dip, by figure. And, now, the second fiaxxi^u) 
is made, rationally or irrationally, to piit under icater, by 
figure. It often happens that heated iron is of such 
weight, or form, or in such relations, that it cannot be 
physically mersed. I have witnessed such cases mersed — 
brought old of a hot state into a cold state — by water, both 
poured and sprinkled. 

Spenser seems to have had his eye on the very passage 
before us when he wrote : 

" And hundred furnaces all burning bright 
To melt the golden metall, ready to be tryde: 
One with great bellowes gathered filling ayre, 
And with forst wind the i'ewell did inflame ; 



330 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

Another did the dying bronds repayre 
"With yron tongs, and sprinekled oft the same 
With liquid waves fiers Vuleans rage to tame, 
Who, maystering them, renewd his former heat." 

5. Corollary. — Whenever any liquid, possessed of a quality 
capable of exerting a controlling influence of any kind whatever, 
is applied to an object so as to develop such influence, it is said, 
on all classical authority, to baptize that object, without regard 
to mode of application, and with as little regard to physical 
position. 



7. " When an old man drinks, and Silenus takes pos- 
session of him, immediately, he is, for a long time, silent, 
and resembles one heavy-headed and mersed." Lucian. 

This passage gives the clearest evidence for a secondary 
use and sense. Lncian is not speaking of drinking from 
a wine-cup, but from the fountain of Silenus. He does 
not describe directly the effect of such drinking, except as 
to its inducing "silence;" in other respects, he says, the 
drinker "resembles one heavy-headed and mersed." 

In this statement, paririZu) is joined with a word which, 
in its literal, primary meaning, expresses one of the feat- 
ures of wine-influence over the system, — " heavy-headed- 
ness." It is incredible that a reference to intoxication 
would thus mix up together the literal and the figurative. 
If "heavy-head" is literal, "mersed," also, is literal. 
Again: We use for illustration things well known, to 
throw light on things less known. " Heavy-headedness 
and mersion," therefore, must have been things well un- 
derstood, as they are the illustrative explanation of the 
influence exerted upon those drinking of the Silenic fount. 
ISTow, these terms are used by Lucian to express a state 
of intoxication. They must, therefore, have been in fa- 
miliar use, with such meaning. I'he language bears, on 
its face, evidence of well-worn, every-day use. "Mersed" 
is used absolutely and as self-explanatory. A coin worn 



BAPTISM BY DRINKING, AT A FOUNTAIN. 331 

smooth by use, a golden eagle with the bird of Jove worn 
away b} T attrition in passing through the hands of the mil- 
lion, does not more fully self-evidence long and familiar use, 
than does this phraseology prove every-day familiarity to 
the popular lip and ear. 

But again: The idea of figure is precluded, because 
resemblances arc not traceable between facts and figures. 
Figure cannot be the basis of figure. If Lucian uses the 
condition of mersion to expound some other condition, 
then the condition expressed by mersion must be a reality, 
and not the figure of something else. 

We, then, have the case of a man not only baptized by 
a fluid element, but at a fountain without any mersion 
in it. 

What higher evidence we could have that the Greeks 
appropriated this word to express a state of drunkenness, 
I do not know. 



8. " For I myself, am of those who, yesterday, were 
mersed." Plato. 

Again, we have the absolute use of the word without 
the slightest indication of a picture or a comparison. Lan- 
guage could not be used more deeply stamped with the evi- 
dence of self-completeness. Yet Dr. Carson says: " When 
baptizo is applied to drunkenness it is taken figuratively; 
and the point of resemblance is between a man completely 
under the influence of wine and an object completely sub- 
jected to a liquid in which it is completely immersed" (p. 
80). It is an error to say, " a man completely under the 
influence of wine resembles an object completely immersed 
in water." Because, 1. There is nothing in the former 
case to which the envelopment in the latter can be resem- 
bled. Wine does not exert its intoxicating influence by the 
envelopment of its object. 2. Envelopment of an object 
in water does not necessarily exert an influence over the 
immersed object. A flint stone, immersed in water, experi- 



332 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

ences no influence from the enveloping fluid. 3. "When 
the object is of such a nature as to be influenced by such 
position, as a man suffocated by encompassing water, there 
can be no resemblance to such position ; because a drunken 
man is in no analogous position. The resemblance must 
be confined to the influence, to the exclusion of position 
inducing such influence ; and in the influence there must 
be a farther limitation : its specific character must be dis- 
regarded; for there is no resemblance between the spe- 
cific influence of wine drunk, and the specific influence of 
water over a man immersed in it. There is, then, noth- 
ing left but the controlling power as common to the one 
and the other. Wine, in its fully developed influence, 
sways a complete and controlling influence over the intellect 
and body; water sways a complete and controlling influence 
over a living man immersed in it. There is no resem- 
blance between the mode in which the influence is exerted, 
for there is no resemblance between drinking and immer- 
sion ; there is no resemblance in the specific influence, 
for there is no resemblance between drunkenness and suf- 
focation; the resemblance is, and only is, in controlling 
power : the wine controls human intellect, the water con- 
trols human life. 

This is the original ground on which the word became 
applied in secondary use; but to say that every use through 
a thousand years must carry a designed, or an appre- 
hended, resemblance, is to set at naught endless facts and 
clearest principles in the development of language. All 
resemblance might be expected to disappear, first, from 
the form of utterance; then, from conscious intellectual 
apprehension, leaving behind, only, the abstract thought 
of controlling influence. The facts of usage show that 
such was the case. An advance step would give the word, 
by frequent appropriation, a specific character. This seems 
to have been done, as in this and other passages, by its 
identification with wine-influence. " I was of those, yes- 
terday, mersed — made drunk." 

The perfectly analogous development of ^<mxo) has al- 



BAPTISM BY WINE. 333 

ready been pointed out. Dr. Conant translates: " I my- 
self am one of those who, yesterday, were overwhelmed." 
By this translation he falls under the ban of Carson, who 
affirms, " The classical meaning of the word is, in no in- 
stance, overwhelm" (p. 311). Whence this contradiction 
between the ablest Controversialist and the Scholar with- 
out a superior among Baptists, in regard to a word of 
" one meaning, easily understood, and to make a difficulty 
in translating which is all a pretence"? Carson rejects 
" overwhelm," because the word means the definite act, 
"dip and nothing but dip, through all Greek literature;" 
a -position which icill never be maintained again by any scholar 
of half the learning of Carson, after looking through the 
facts of usage. This is not Conant's position. But what 
his position is, is left in obscurity by the commingling of 
the inconsistent terms, dip and plunge, severely modal in 
form of act, and the use of immerse, immerge, and sub- 
merge, equivocal as to form of action; as, also, by the use 
of the terms whelm, overwhelm,, imbathe, immodal as to 
act, but having a secondary use expressive of controlling 
influence, while such use is denied. 

In the passage before us, as an English word, "over- 
whelm" can, only, have the meaning of controlling in- 
fluence. To say that it does, and is designed to figure 
" mountain billows, rushing torrents, sweeping inunda- 
tion, sinking with a millstone weight in deep water," is 
preposterous. The meaning of controlling influence is 
sustained by the quotation given by Conant: " In this use, 
the Greek word corresponds to the English word drench. 
So, Shakspeare, Macbeth, i, 7, (speaking of the ' spongy 
officers' plied 'with wine and wassail,')" 

" "When in swinish sleep 
Their drenched nature lies." 

in a note, Dr. Conant adds: " Icelandic, dreclda, to plunge 
in water; Swedish, draenca, same sense; also, to drown. — 
Diet, of Eng. Etymol., \Ycdfjcv:ood,.' n He might have farther 
added, Saxon, drencean, to soak, to inebriate; Dutch, drcn- 



334 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

ken, to water, to soak. Is any support, herein, given to 
the idea that "overwhelm" means to plunge, or to be 
swept away by billows and torrents? Is it not established 
that "drench" has a secondary meaning, and a specific 
appropriation like fia-KT&m, to express "drowning" and' in- 
ebriety ? 

Drench, like (tami'to, expresses no form of act, but con- 
dition. The condition demanded may be effected by any, 
competent, form of act; whether it be that of sprinkling, , 
pouring, dipping, plunging, sinking, whelming, or what 
not. " Drench with water" is a command, not to execute 
a form of action, but to effect a certain condition ; to wet 
thoroughly, to bring completely under the wetting quality 
of water. "Drench with wine" is a command, not to 
subject to the wetting quality of wine, but to bring com- 
pletely under its intoxicating quality by drinking. "Drench 
with rhubarb" is neither to make wet, nor to make drunk, 
but to bring fully under its 'purgative quality. 

Dr. Conant is right in saying "the Greek word corres- 
ponds to the English word drench," inasmuch as drench 
expresses, 1. Condition, and not the form of an act. 2. 
Completely developed influence. 3. Appropriation to 
drowning and drunkenness. He, therefore, errs when he 
translates the Greek word by " overwhelm," using it in 
any other sense than that of complete influence, unless he 
will attach to it the Saxon idea " to inebriate," and admit 
that paxriXa) has secured to itself the power to express, 
directly, a condition of intoxication. 

TO BEWILDER. 

9. "I knowing that the youth was mersed, wishing to 
relieve him." Plato. 

Cleinias, a young man, in company with some sophists, 
was hopelessly embarrassed by a series of subtle questions 
addressed to him. And, on this foundation, shall we 
sketch a picture of a youth exposed to rolling billows and 



BAPTISM BY QUESTIONS. 335 

sweeping torrents? If Gale was justly liable to the charge 
of a " monstrous perversion of taste," in dipping a lake 
into a frog's blood, to avoid a secondary meaning to fid-mm; 
what shall be said of those who will take Cleinias from 
his entangling questions to drown him in the sea, in order 
to escape a secondary meaning to ^a-ziZco ? 

If usage like this does not prove an absolute departure 
from water mersion, both in fact and in figure, what can 
prove it ? 

To baptism, thus exhibited, there is but one idea to be 
attached ; it is that of bewilderment. And this case shows 
the greatness of the error, when a figure is attempted, in 
bringing water envelopment, or any specific influence flow- 
ing from it, into the foreground of the picture. What has 
" bewilderment" to do with immersion in water or with 
suffocation? Understood to express, generally, controlling 
influence, it has a facile adaptation to any case, of what- 
ever nature, marked by such influence. One bewildered 
by questions, or drunk with wine, is, equally, a baptized 
man. They are brought into new conditions of being. 

TO MAKE DRUXK. 

10. "You would not have seen a shield, or a helmet, or 
a long pike ; but soldiers mersing with bowls and cups 
and flagons, along the whole way, pledged one another out 
of large wine-jars and mixing vessels." 

" El.ozq o' «v ou ~il7r t v, ou xpdvoq^ ou GapiGeav a)JA ipiakai^ xai 
{jutoIs, xou OypczAetotq -apa ttjv 6ddv a-arrav ol ffrparidizat (3aiCTi£ovTeZj 
t/. TziOwv ftsydAaw xai xparrjpoDv dXAjjAocs jcpoimvov." Plutarch. 

The historian is speaking of the riotous march of Alex- 
ander's army, through a region of abundance, after the 
perils and sufferings of the homeward march from their 
Eastern conquests. 

" The soldiers along the whole way dipping with cups 
and horns and goblets, from great wine-jars and mixing- 
bowls, were drinking to one another" (Conant). 

Dr. Conant mentions a doubt expressed by Du Soul as 



336 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

to the correctness of the reading, fiaxviZovreq, on the ground 
of its construction with h. rdOwv. He thinks, however, that 
the difficulty is obviated by the suggestion of Coray, " a 
part of the action is put for the whole, as one must dip 
the vessel in order to fill it." 

The difficulty arises from, and the explanation proceeds 
on the assumption, that the word signifies to dip; which 
is a mistake. It is quite possible that the cups, used for 
drinking, were filled by being dipped into the wine; but 
Plutarch says nothing about the manner in which they 
were filled. "We must not confound /fajrr&oi with /Sd-™. 

In the edition of Plutarch, before me, there is a comma 
after tSa-r^ovTss; showing that, in the judgment of the editor, 
there was no immediate logical or grammatical connection 
between that word and l* rUOwv. According to the punctua- 
tion of this edition, and without changing the Greek order, 
it would read, "bat with bowls and cups and flagons, along 
the whole way the soldiers mersing, out of large wine-jars 
and mixing-vessels, drank to one another ; " or, the soldiers 
drank to one another, out of large wine-jars and mixing- 
vessels, with bowls and cups and flagons, along the whole 
way, mersing (making drunk one another). Barrio, in the 
sense to make drunk, is entirely familiar to Plutarch. 
The translation, " dipping," is entirely without authority 
from use, as has been shown; and as is confirmed by this 
construction so impracticable on that view. Yet Dr. 
Puller translates — "dipping with cups .... out of large 
casks; " adding, "dipping wine out of casks is here called 
baptizing out of casks and urns." Bapting out of casks 
(although this is not said), might be expounded, but " bap- 
tizing out of casks" does not admit of exposition. Be- 
sides, Dr. Fuller seems to be entirely oblivious, that he 
had before, right squarely, turned his back on dipping as 
a sense beyond defence. At the sea-coast baptism the 
Doctor separated himself from the defeated dippers, and 
raised a banner for himself, exclaiming—" My position is 
that baptize means immerse." What has become of that 
position in this "dipping out of casks, called baptizing (im- 



BAPTISM BY WINE. 337 

mersing?) out of casks"? Oh! this slipping one word 
into the place of another to meet an exigency ! Look at 
this translation, by dipping, to escape an immersion, and, 
then, at the following statements, made, in triumph, to 
escape from, impossible, dipping: "Every candid reader 
will, I think, grant that I have ascertained the meaning 
of Baptizo. It signifies to immerse, and has no other mean- 
ing" (n. 251). " To any man it ought to be enough that 
I have proved the only meaning of Baptizo to be immerse" 
(p. 58). Well ; and if immerse has been proved against dip- 
ping, what about " dipping out of casks" "called baptiz- 
ing"? The Doctor has two strings to his bow. Politi- 
cians have a word,. " gerrymandering," to denote all 
manner of crookednesses. The full power of this word 
will be taxed to express the ins and outs of Baptist writers 
in jotting down the " one only meaning of pa-miXa through 
all Greek literature." 

^Vhen Plutarch uses this Greek word, in connection 
with the drunken rout described, he undoubtedly uses it, 
as he does elsewhere, to express the controlling influence 
of the wine, which was flowing like water. 



11. " The nobleman being sober, as you see, and pre- 
pared, sets upon us debauched and mersed from yester- 
day. Plutarch. 

There is an express contrast made between one in a 
state of sobriety and others in a state of inebriety. Drunk- 
enness presents various stages and phases. It is to its later 
developments that reference is, here, made. 

How dipping into water is to be made, by figure, to 
illustrate such a passage, I leave for others to explain. 
The contrast of the sober man and the drunken man; the 
association of zpamaXdaa with ^a-z^to; and the reference to 
"3-esterday," would seem to call for some other element 
than water. 

It is impossible to find resemblance between the action 

22 



338 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

» 

of drinking and the action of dipping; for there is none. 
It is impossible to find resemblance between the mode in 
which wine (drinking) exerts its influence, and the mode in 
which water (enveloping its object) exerts, its influence; 
for there is none. It is impossible to find any resemblance 
between the nature of wine influence and the nature of water 
influence; for there is none. 



12. "A great resource, truly, for a pleasant "day is a 
good temperament of body un-mersed and unburdened." 

Plutarch. 

This remark is based on the benefit consequent upon an 
abstemious mode of living. An unmersed body is one 
not under the influence of wine. An unburdened body 
is one under the influence of a cheerful spirit. 



13. " Of those slightly intoxicated only the intellect is 
disturbed; but the body is yet able to serve its impulses, 
being, not yet, mersed." Plutarch. 

"For of the slightly intoxicated only the intellect is dis- 
turbed; but the body is able to obey its impulses, being 
not yet overwhelmed" [Conant). 

The word translated " slightly intoxicated," axpodupdxwv, 
means, literally and primarily, "slightly armed;" yet Dr. 
Conant does not hesitate to translate it as having, also, 
the direct meaning, "slightly intoxicated." Is there any 
better reason for giving a secondary meaning to one of 
these words rather than to the other? If the former 
means " slightly intoxicated," must not the latter, of ne- 
cessity, mean thoroughly intoxicated ? Does Plutarch say, 
the intellect yields, in the first stages of drunkenness, 
while the body yields only in the later stages, when it is — 
dipped in water f 

Dr. Conant quotes another passage entirely parallel with 



BAPTISM OF BACCHUS. 339 

this, but, if possible, still clearer and more conclusive for 
our interpretation ; but which I do not adduce, because 
not within the limits of those writers to which I, now, 
restrict myself. The passage is from Philo, and is trans- 
lated thus : " And I know some, who, when they become 
slightly intoxicated" (azpoOwpazes, slightly armed), "before 
they are completely overwhelmed (baptized), provide by 
contribution and tickets a carousal for the morrow" — 
(Conant). 

Any one who can accept this as saying — "when they 
become slightly intoxicated, before they become over- 
whelmed — as it were dipped in water — provide for a carousal 
next day" — need have no difficulty in rejecting the sec- 
ondary meaning of iSd-rw, and accepting the lake dipping 
in frog's blood. 

All others will confess that fia-xTi'u) has acquired the 
power to express, directly, the influence of wine to make 
drunk. The evidence for this is overwhelming — not, " as 
it were, dipped in water, or sunk by a weight, or whelmed 
by a torrent" — but as adequate to exercise an influence 
controlling the judgment. 



14. ""Why do they pour in beside the wine sea-water, 
and say that fishermen received an oracle commanding 
them to merse Bacchus by the sea?" Plutarch. 

" Why do they pour sea-water into wine ... to merse 
Bacchus in (or at) the sea?" {Conant). A note is appended, 
in which is quoted the statement — " To immerse Bacchus 
is nothing else than to temper wine." 

Here is a baptism commanded by divine (according to 
their notions) authority. Dr. Conant says, it is a literal, 
physical (such is the caption) baptism. We are, then, 
happily, out of the land of figures. How was this oracle- 
command to baptize Bacchus obeyed? 

1. As to Bacchus. We learn that Bacchus has no per- 



340 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

sonality, but only stands as representative far wine. Well, 
then, the command is to baptize wine. How is this done ? 

2. As to the sea. It is to be done "by the sea." Whether 
this means locality, only, or directly declares, or indirectly 
suggests, the means of the baptism, all will admit that there 
is enough of appropriate element at hand for any amount 
of dipping, or any measure of immersion. How was it 
used ? Wine, in a bottle, skin, or cask, is as capable of 
being dipped or immersed in the sea, or of being whelmed, 
" in the literal, physical sense," as any other thing. And 
such, we are told, is the only mode of literal baptism, and 
to this only one, all figurative baptisms must be procrusted. 
Was such the style of this Bacchus baptism ? 

3. As to baptize. Dr. Carson says r I will make the word 
baptize find me water, enough to dip in, amid a sandy 
desert. The word need not go far, then, when standing 
on the sandy shore of the sea, to find sufficient for every 
demand. Does it make use of it for " dipping" Bacchus ? 
Does the fisherman take his wine- vessel, in his boat, out 
far enough, and honestly dip it, putting in a short distance, 
and, then, promptly recovering it ? Or, as honestly bap- 
tize it by putting it under without regard to a recovery ? 
The one way is bapting, the other way, unquestionably, is 
one mode of baptizing; and if there be "but one mode," 
then it is the only mode. Is this the fishermen's mode 
of baptizing Bacchus ? Plutarch says not. He declares 
that as "he was ensconced in the goblet they took water 
from the sea and poured it over him. " True, they poured 
the sea-water over him, but pouring is not baptizing; yet, 
if you pour long enough and cover him all over, there will 
be a baptism " {Fuller). I do not think the pouring was 
" long enough." I rather think that Bacchus would have 
resisted the mode as heretical and un-Greekly. Had it 
been persisted in "long enough," I think that he would 
have overleaped the goblet's brim, and utterly refused to 
be " covered over." In plain English, covering over wine, 



BAPTISM OF BACCnUS. 341 

by pouring water into it, cannot be done. The baptism 
must be sought in another direction. 

Dr. Fuller admits, that an altar on which water was 
poured, without being "poured long enough to cover it," 
was, still, said to be baptized; because it was "drenched." 
Will Dr. Fuller admit that wine is " drenched" by water 
poured into it, although not " poured loug enough to cover 
it" ? Dr. Fuller has progressed from dipping to immers- 
ing, and from immersing to pouring long enough to cover, 
and from pouring long enough to cover, to pouring long 
enough to drench; will he take one more step in advance 
(it is all that I care for him to take), and pass on from 
" pouring long enough to drench," to pouring long enough 
to change the quality or condition of an object ? 

Let this be granted by Baptist brethren, and the ma- 
terial for controversy on this subject will be exhausted. 

Does the case before us necessitate such acknowledg- 
ment ? I think that it does, most unmistakably. 

1. It is a fact, that Bacchus (wine) was commanded to 
be baptized. 

2. It is a fact, that under this command water was 
poured into wine. 

3. It is a fact, that water thus poured into wine exercises 
a controlling influence over it; "tempers it;" changes its 
character; takes away its intoxicating quality; removes it 
out of the class of intoxicating liquids into the class of un- 
intoxicating liquids ; changes its condition. 

4. It is a fact that such baptism is in completest har- 
mony with the exposition of the baptism of hot iron by 
pouring water on it : it controls its peculiar quality of 
heat; changes its character ; makes it cold; brings it into 
a new condition. 

5. It is a fact, that such baptism accords, most fully, with 
the exposition given of drunken baptism by pouring wine 
into a man; it controls him; changes his character; makes 
him irrational; removes him out of sobriety into inebriety. 



342 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

6. It is a fact, that Dr. Conant places this among "literal, 
physical " baptisms. "We are happy to have his high author- 
ity for such a truth. It has our very cordial concurrence. 
There is no dipping, no plunging, no immersing, but there 
is a controlling influence exerted over an object; and that, 
whether it be by putting water into wine, or wine into a 
man, or water upon hot iron, is true and literal baptism, 
if the usage of classical Greek writers is of any authority. 

"Wine made unintoxicating by water poured into it, is 
baptized wine. 

PURIFICATION. 

15. " Call the purifying Old Woman, and merse thyself 
(going) to the sea, and remain all day sitting on the 
ground." Plutarch. 

This baptism differs from all others which have claimed 
our attention (unless it be the baptism of Bacchus), in that 
it is a religious baptism. The passage constitutes the 
counsel given to one who had been disturbed, and was 
supposed to be defiled, by ill dreams. Sea-water is to be 
used for the sake of its purifying influence. 

"Plunge yourself into the sea" [Conant). "Baptize 
yourself into the sea — this baptism, also, must be by im- 
mersion" [Carson). 

1. It will be my endeavor to show that neither of the 
specific forms of action, " plunging into the sea," — " dip- 
ping into the sea," — is stated, or of necessity required, by 
the text. 

2. To show that, no specific form of action being stated, 
it is wholly beyond our power to know (therefore with 
propriety to affirm) by what form of action this baptism 
was consummated. 

3. To state a possible way in which it may have been 
done. 

1. There is nothing in the passage to indicate the form 
of the act but paizTiZto ; and that word is incompetent to 



BAPTISM BY SEA-WATER. 343 

perform any such duty, as has been, abundantly, shown. 
Besides, plunge, given by Conant, and dip, given by Car- 
son (for "baptize means dip, and only dip"), are words 
of essentially different character; and baptize is so far 
from expressing cither, that Fuller is compelled, openly, 
to abandon both for the cloudier term — " im-merse." 

It is a point as settled as anything of the kind can be, 
that the demand for plunging or dipping rests in the fancy 
of these writers, and not in the Greek word. 

" If the specific forms of act claimed are not in the word, 
yet is not a mersion, stripped of specific forms, to be found 
in 'the sea'?" I answer, no; for Bacchus was baptized 
"by the sea" without mersion by any form in the sea/ 

"But does not the phrase pemnZeiv els 0dXa<T<7av, necessarily 
require that the object (without giving to it form) should 
pass into the sea?" I answer, yes; provided there is an 
immediate relation between these words. That, however, 
is not necessarily the case in the present instance. 

The person to whom these words are addressed is not 
standing on the sea-shore. If he were, these words would 
carry him (in some way not defined) into the sea. But he 
is at a distance from the sea, and, therefore, el- Odlaaaav 
may be exhausted by a relation established with a verb 
of motion to be supplied. 

That this suggestion is not groundless is evident from 
the fact, that such a verb of motion is supplied in a French 
translation (1599), met with in the Philadelphia Library. 
It is true that this translation, still, supposed that there 
was a passing into the sea; but if this phrase be construed 
with a supplied verb, it is divorced from fta-r^w, and has 
no longer power to interpret that word. 

That such separation should take place may be, farther, 
argued from the unsuitableness of such phraseology to 
express the use of sea-water for purification. It is such 
language as is, elsewhere, used for drowning, and unless 
deliverance come from some other quarter than the phrase 
itself, drowning is inevitable. I do not say that every 
baptized man must become a drowned man; but I do say 



344 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

that fia--i%a) never did, and never will take any man out of 
the water ; and a command to baptize a man in the sea ; 
or to baptize himself into the sea, is a command (inter- 
preted simply by the force of its terms) to drown a man, 
or to commit suicide by drowning, just as surely as that 
2 and 2 make 4, For this reason, I say that the weight 
of evidence is in favor of another, possible, interpretation. 
The translation may be, "baptize thyself, going to the sea;" 
leaving the way open, after arrival there, for the use of the 
water, in any way that fancy, or superstition, or religious 
usage may determine. 

2. No manner of using the water having been stated, 
and fidizriZtii being absolutely dumb with silence on that 
point, no human being can throw one ray of certain light 
on the mode of practice on this, or on any other occa- 
sion, characterized, only, by this single word. This truth 
becomes emphasized when, as here, there is no demand for 
even a mersecl, physical, condition; much less for a definite 
act to effect such condition. . 

If the counsel, given to the Dreamer, require mersion 
in the sea, it is obvious that it does so, not as an end, but 
as a means, a means to purification ; but unless sea-water 
cannot purify except mersed objects (which we know is 
not true), then, so far as the attainment of this end, we 
are not shut up to a mersion in the sea. And the way for 
the manner of use opens wider still. 

It is important to keep in remembrance that this was a 
case of religious defilement; and that the point to be 
secured was, to bring the man out of this condition of defile- 
ment into a condition of purity. ISTow, whatever will accom- 
plish this will render him a baptized man, according to 
the principle, "whatever is capable of changing the condi- 
tion, character, and relations of its object, is capable of 
baptizing that object." And, here, allow me to trespass, 
once more, by a reference to a writer outside of the classic 
circle. In the Stromata, iii, 18, £x auycppoab^q efc Tzop^tav 
fiaxziZouai — doytiaz&ovTss, we have a baptism out of one condi- 



BAPTISM BY SEA-WATER. 345 

tion into another, " out of purity into impurity,''' and the 
baptism is effected by " licentious teaching." This is the 
most perfect confirmation of the principle deduced from 
the classics — Whatever exercises a controlling influence over its 
object, baptizes that object, by transferring it from one state or 
condition to another. If sea- water has a controlling influence 
over snperstitiously induced defilement, then, in whatever 
way such water may be used (securing the development of 
such influence), it baptizes, taking out of defilement and 
putting into purity, with all its rights and privileges, 
whether by sprinkling or otherwise. 

3. This sea-water may have been used by pouring, by 
sprinkling, by washing the hands, or in any other way in 
which it was popularly imagined, or religiously required, 
to secure purification. The word /2a7rrt'f> places, absolutely, 
no limits to the case. If it was supposed that the virtues 
of sea-water were secured by drinking, then such mode of 
use would be just as legitimate a mode of baptism as any 
other. It would control the condition. The Eev. E. S. 
Fullerton, missionary to Hiudostan, says: " Upon this the 
dying man is placed, and pieces of gold and silver and 
coral, together with some Ganges icater and a tulsi leaf, were 
placed in his mouth. The tulsi is a plant much worship- 
ped by the Hindoos. All this is done by icay of purifying 
the man and preparing him for death." IS r ow, I do not say, 
as a matter of fact, that Plutarch's dreamer did take sea- 
water and "put it into his mouth" for purification; but I 
do say, that if the purifying influence of sea-water was 
supposed to be thus developed, then, Greek usage would 
say that such a man was a baptized man. And whether, in 
this passage or not, we should read, "purify thyself, going 
to the sea," there is nothing in classic usage to prevent 
(Sa-ri^co meaning to purify by the sprinkling or drinking sea- 
water, any more than to mean to intoxicate by drinking 
wine. Palinurua was baptized into sleep by sprinkling 
his temples with Lethean dew. — JEneid, v, 855. 

If this dreamer, having gone to the sea, had neither 



346 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

plunged, nor clipped, nor sprinkled, nor drank its waters, 
nor, as Dr. Fuller suggests, " laid down upon the shore 
and let its billows roll over him," hut had merely gone 
through the "mud-smearing" process of lustration, and 
w T as, thus, supposed to he free from defilement; Greek 
usage would give fullest sanction to his being called a 
baptized man. 
If classic Greek pronounces that man who is in a condi- 

I Hon of drunkenness to be a baptized man — or, in a condi- 

' Hon of indebtedness, to be a baptized man — or, in a con- 
dition of intellectual imbecility, to be a baptized man — 
or, in a condition of obloquy, to be a baptized man — or, 
in a condition of grief, anger, or vehement desire, to be a 
baptized man — or in a condition of profound stupor, to be 
a baptized man — or, in a condition of suffering from mis- 
fortune, or from oppressive taxes, to be a baptized man — 
or, in a condition of mental perplexity, to be a baptized 

1 man — or, in a condition of disease, and under the influence 
of magical arts, to be a baptized man, — then, I say (although 
no instance may be found, either in the case before us, or 
in any other case " through all Greek literature," where 
a man restored by any competent influence to religious 
purity is said to be a baptized man, still), any one who 

i chooses thus to apply the term (and to associate it with 
sprinkling as the act), will have, in so doing, the unani- 
mous support of every classic Greek writer through a 
thousand years. 

Take, for example, the following: "01 iv AlyoTznt) tspets 

y I iauzouq izspippaivoucnv ou Ttavri vdart, aA/' Ixslvoj l~ ob 7Z£7tC(TTsuxa(nv 6zt 

apa xai 'Iftig itzizmxw"* " The priests in Egypt besprinkle 
themselves, not with any water, but with that of which 
they believe that Isis drank." — Plutarch de Isid. et Osir., cap. 
89. The term baptism is not applied to this transaction; 
but I affirm, that a state of complete 'purification induced by 
the sprinkling of Ibis water, is as legitimate and true a 
baptism, interpreted by classic Greek, as would be a state 

* I follow Matthsei ; Exp. Bapt, p. 338. I have not found this precise 
language. 



BAPTISM BY TEACHING. 347 

of complete covering of their bodies by their being sunk 
to the bottom of the Xilc. The baptisms differ in their 
nature; but as to their legitimacy, under the severest in- 
terpretation, the former is as complete as the latter. 

Sprinkling demands, not as of grace, but as of absolute 
right, the acknowledgment of its power to baptize. 



A CLASS OF PEKSONS— THOKOUGHLY IMBUED. 

Ootid xai ij[i£t<; napa^ajcriarai. So, also, we are Parabaptists 
(spuriously mersed). Akrian, ii, 9. 

As this passage has some special interest and import- 
ance, I will give it more fully : 

To -dOoc too ftzfia/jL/iivou xai ypyjfiivou tots xa\ eart rw ovti xai xaXelrat 
^Iooddioq. ootid xa\ r^aliT ~apa(3a-TiffTac, Xoyip /xsv 'Iooddiot, spyut S'uXAotc, 
daofx-aOziq r.poq tov Xoyov. fiazpav d-d too yp^a&ai tootolt a Xiyo/isv 
ly 6'.$ wq etdoTST duTa f-aipo/xsOa. 

The caption to the chapter from which this extract is 
made is as follows : 

" When we are unable to fulfil what the character of a 
man promises, we assume tjiat of a philosopher." His 
theme is Character — True Manhood — False Assumption. 

The translation and remarks of Prof. Stuart have been 
already given in connection with that part of the passage 
which relates to /3a-rw. For convenience, I repeat what 
relates to the point before us : " "Where we see any one 
acting with both parties, we are wont to say : lie is no 
Jew, but plays the hypocrite. But when he takes on him 
the state and feelings of one who is washed or baptized, 
and has attached himself to the sect, then he is in truth 
and is called a Jew. But we are TcapafiaieTttrrat, transgressors 
as to our baptism, or falsely baptized, if we are like a Jew 
in pretence and something else in reality." 

Another translation: " But when he assumes the sen- 
timents of one who hath been baptized and circumcised, 
then he both really is, and is called a Jew. Thus we, fal- 
sifying our profession, are Jews in name, but in reality 



348 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

are something else. Our sentiments are inconsistent with 
our discourse ; far from practising what we teach, and we 
pride ourselves in the knowledge of. Thus, while we are 
unable to fulfil what the character of a man promises, we 
assume, besides, so vast a weight as that of a philosopher. 
As if a person, incapable of lifting ten pounds, should 
endeavor to heave the same stone with Ajax." — Elizabeth 
Carter. London, 1758. " Parabaptistse sumus, et non le- 
gitime tincti." — Politiani, Lugduni, 1600. "When speaking, 
heretofore, of il rd izdQuq rod fis.fiaiLijhov" I remarked that I had 
not found any writer who brought the secondary meaning 
of iSaTzra) to bear upon the passage. Since then, I am happy 
to say, I have met with one who does. In Epicteii, $>c, 
London, 1670, H. Wolfe, we have this translation : " Cum 
autem afFectum Hid disciplind imbuli sectamque professi ad- 
hibuerit, turn revera Judaius et est et nominator. " 

All idea of any reference to Christian baptism, or Jewish 
baptism, or to the rite of circumcision, must, I think, be 
excluded, as incongruous, from the passage. I would read 
it thus : " When we see any one, now on one side, now on 
the other, we are used to say, he is not a Jew but a pre- 
tender. But when he adopts- the sympathies of one imbued 
and convinced, then he is both in reality and is called a 
Jew. So, also, we are Parabaptists — mis-mersed — Jews in 
word, but something else in fact, un-sympathizing in heart 
with the utterances of our lips." (See Rom. 2 : 28, 29.) 

1. The scope of a passage must largely control the in- 
terpretation of its parts. The passage has an exclusive 
regard to man's nature, and to genuine and spurious char- 
acter. There is a severe exposure of the inconsistency 
exhibited between profession and practice. It is impossi- 
ble, under these circumstances, that the elements of a 
profession should be made the chosen exponents of char- 
acter. But this is done if a ritual baptism and a ritual 
circumcision are spoken of. Outward rites do not confer 
inward character. To adopt the character or sympathies 
of one ritually baptized, &c, is to adopt a nullity. 



BAPTISM BY TEACHING. 349 

2. The phrase ps{3aftfi£vou xai ypypL&ou may be interpreted 
in completest harmony with the scope of the passage. 
This has been, already, shown, and need not be repeated. 
To adopt " the sympathies of one imbued and convinced," 
is to adopt a real, and not a merely ritual character. 

3. Uapapo-7>.<j7a\ is capable of a like harmonious inter- 
pretation. Nothing is more unquestionable than that pro- 
found influence belongs to /JaTrr&w, and is inseparable from 
all its forms. The form before us is met with, now, for 
the first time. It may occur, elsewhere, in classical writ- 
ings; but, if so, I am not aware of it. In this infrequent 
occurrence, as well as in construction, it resembles 6t fid-rat. 
The resemblance does not stop here. They both refer to 
classes of persons marked by decided character; /?«-njc, 
through dyeing; fta-Ticrr^, through mersion. The former 
drops the clement of color; the latter drops the form of 
intusposition. Parabaptist is very clearly expounded as 
one whose character is traceable no deeper than the utter- 
ances of the lip;, while a Baptist, by implication, is one 
whose utterances are from the heart, or, as Antoninus 
says, " imbued with honesty to the bottom" A ritual water 
dipping is utterly out of place. c /Wnjs was one tinc- 
tured with all that is vile; 6 fia-zidrr^ is one thoroughly 
penetrated with the elements of character, honestly ex- 
hibited, whether good or bad. 

\Ve have, thus, in the progress of our classical inquiries, 
been brought face to face with the Jav, interpreters think 
with Jewish baptism. 

The outer confine of the limits assigned to ourselves has 
been reached. 

Sacred Baptism can have no possible influence over 
Classic Baptism; whatever influence the latter may have 
over the former. Every rational consideration demands 
that Classic Baptism should be discussed first in order, and 
be determined without any disturbing influence. 

In an attempt to do this, the materials within my reach 
have, now, become exhausted. And here Ave rest. 



350 



CLASSIC BAPTISM. 



GENEEAL KESULTS. 



In concluding this inquiry, and in gathering up results 
connected with it, it may be remarked : 

1. Certain old and long-cherished errors have been 
abandoned. 

(1.) That, flaxTa) and /5a~rc'!> are absolute equivalents, is an 
error maintained through two centuries of controversy, 
but, at length, abandoned by all. 

(2.) That, pd-T<i> does not mean to dye, is an error, now, 
left without a defender. It is instructive to remember 
that all cases of dyeing were once, controversially, treated 
as cases of figure, in which dipping was always present in 
fact or in imagination. 

(3.) That, i3a7tTtZ(o means to dip repeatedly, is an error 
thoroughly exploded. Lexicons still give this meaning; 
but lexicographers must take a great deal on trust, or on 
a necessarily imperfect examination. Thoroughly devel- 
oped usage is supreme. 

2. Other errors remain to be corrected. 

(1.) That, pdTZTw, primary, is sternly adherent to the modality 
of dipping, through all its usage, is an error to be corrected. 
Why not accept to moisten, to wet, to wash, without mo- 
dality, as well as to dye? These are the natural out- 
growths of dip, as are to color, to stain, to gild, to glaze, 
to temper, to tincture, the legitimate language offspring 
of dye. 

(2.) That, paTtriZu) is but a reappearance of fidnTio "in a 
little longer coat," is an error. That any language should 
give birth to a word which was but a bald repetition of one 
already in existence, is a marvel which may be believed 
when proved. Besides, when the relationship between 



GENERAL RESULTS. 351 

these words was settled, it was affirmed that fidbma had but 
one, and that a modal, meaning; this is, now, abandoned, 
and an additional meaning, without modality, is admitted; 
surely, in view of so great a ehange, the relationship be- 
tween these words calls for a review. 

(3.) That, Ja-r^co expresses a definite act of any Unci, is 
an error needing correction. The current of controversy 
set toward the proof or disproof of certain acts, — to 
dip, to plunge, on the one side; to sprinkle, to pour, on the 
other. The controversy has proved to be both unsatis- 
factory and interminable. It would, still, continue to be 
so, if prolonged through three thousand years instead of 
three hundred. The idea that any form of act is justly 
involved in the controversy, is but a phantom of the imag- 
ination. There is no form of act inherent in ( 5a^:!>. It 
claims the agency of a band of servitors whose name is 
legion. 

(4.) That, any word expressive of condition can be self-limited, 
as to the form of the act effecting such condition, is an error. 

Bd-rcD, secondary, demands for its object a dyed condition. It 
has no form of act of its own. It asks for no specific act. It 
accepts and cordially affiliates with dip, or drop, or press, 
or smear, or sprinkle, or pour, &c, &c. 

BeacriZw demands for its object condition : (1.) A change in 
its present condition, introducing it into a condition of 
complete iniusposition. This word, like ,3d-roj (second), has 
no form of act of its own; it asks for none; it accepts 
indifferently of any, of all, competent to meet its demand. 
(2.) It demands a complete change of condition, physical, in- 
tellectual, moral, or ceremonial, without intusposition. And 
to meet this demand it accepts any agency, physical or 
spiritual, competent to the task. Hot iron made to pass 
into a cold condition ; intoxicating wine made to pass into 
vt'mg condition; a defiled man made to pass 
into a purified condition ; a sober man made to pass into 
a drunken condition ; a wakeful man made to pass into a 



352 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

deeply somnolent condition ; are all exemplifications of bap- 
tism without intusposition in fact, and without any evidence 
of intnsposition by figure. The varied acts and agencies 
inducing these baptisms show that there is no limitation 
in these directions. 

(5.) That, $a.Tctl*<a has any responsibility for the form of the 
act effecting primary baptism, or for the manner of applying the 
agency securing secondary baptism, is an error. Dr. Carson 
says, " to dye (fidiecetv) by sprinkling is as legitimate as to 
dye by dipping." Because coloring matter, applied by 
sprinkling, effects a dyed condition, does fidx™, therefore, 
mean to sprinkle, or has it anything to do with the mode 
of applying the color ? To merse — pmnlZew — to place in a 
condition of intusposition by sprinkling, is as legitimate as to do 
so by sinking; but does ftanri^w, therefore, mean to sprinkle, 
or has it any responsibility for the act by which the intus- 
position was effected? To merse — fiaacriUiv — to bring into a 
new and completely changed condition, by sprinkling (as, for ex- 
ample, bringing an impure man into a state of complete 
purity by sprinkling Ibis water), is as legitimate as any 
other conceivable method; but shall we tear asunder 
fiaTTuZio and its condition, to ally it with the mode of ap- 
plying the water, with which it has nothing to do ? It is 
enough for any word to perform one duty well. When 
pa-ri^iD has, with all fidelity, secured appropriate condition 
for its object, do not impose upon it the alien and im- 
practicable duty of performing, also, the act by which that 
condition is effected. 

3. Usage, the accepted arbiter, has spoken freely, and, 
I think, has been reported faithfully, as teaching — 

(1.) B&ktu), tingo, and dip, are words, which, in their re- 
spective languages, represent, for the most part, the same 
identical ideas. 

(2.) Banri^, mergo, and merse, are words, which, in their 



GENERAL RESULTS. 353 

respective languages, represent, for the most part, the same 
identical ideas. 

(3.) These two classes of words differ from each other 
essentially. They are not interchanged, nor interchange- 
able ordinarily, much less identical. 

(4.) BdizTo) and Ba-ri^co exhibit a perfect parallelism in 
their development. 

1. Bd-Tw; To DIP. 

1. Ba-zc'CW, TO MERSE. 

2. Bd-Tw; To dip into any coloring liquid for the sake of 

the effect; To dye. 

2. BaxTiZw) To merse into any liquid for the sake of its 

influence; To drown. 

3. Bd-rw, To affect by the peculiar influence of coloring 

matter (icithout the act of dipping); e. g., to sprinkle 
blood; to squeeze a berry ; to bruise by blows. 
3. BaTzri^w) To affect by any controlling influence (with- 
out the condition of mersion); e. g., to sprinkle poppy- 
juice ; to pour water on hot iron; to drink intoxicat- 
ing liquor. 

The perfect parallelism of development thus exhibited, 
in these two words, goes far to show that the true inter- 
pretation of each has been secured. 

(5.) Baptism is a myriad-sided word, adjusting itself to 
the most diverse cases. 

Agamemnon was baptized; Bacchus was baptized; 
Cupid was baptized; Cleinias was baptized; Alexander 
was baptized; Panthia was baptized; Otho was baptized; 
Charicles was baptized ; and a host of others were bap- 
tized, each differing from the other in the nature or the 
mode of their baptism, or both. 

A blind man could more readily select any demanded 
color from the spectrum, or a child could more readily 

23 



354 CLASSIC BAPTISM. 

thread the Cretan labyrinth, than could " the seven wise 
men of Greece " declare the nature, or mode, of any given 
baptism by the naked help of j3a7zz^w. 

(6.) The master-key to the interpretation of j3anr^a) is 
condition, — condition characterized by completeness, with 
or without physical envelopment. 

CONCLUSION. 
Such are the results reached in an attempt to determine, 
from usage, the meaning of ^anriZo), and the nature of 
Classic Baptism. No claim is made for absolute truth. 
Apologetic material is not lacking to extenuate the want 
of greater perfectness; but I care not to offer it. In the 
lack of service on the part of those more competent, I have 
done what I could. The method and the issue are cheer- 
fully and deferentially submitted to all competent judges. 
Approval of every conception and definition I do not look 
for; a clear verdict of substantial truth, I do venture to 
expect. If in this expectation I shall not be disappointed, 
it is my purpose to pursue the inquiry "on this line" in 
relation to Jewish and Christian baptisms. But "one 
thing at a time" is a good rule. Under it, let all inter- 
ested seek to give an answer, that shall be final, to the 
question, What is Classic Baptism? 

Over against the Baptist answers : 

1. Baptizing is dipping and dipping is baptizing. 

Baptist Confession of Faith. 

2. To dip and nothing but dip through all Greek literature. 

Alexander Carson, LL.D., Baptist Board of Publication. 

3. To immerse, immerge, submerge, to dip, to plunge, to im- 

bathe, to whelm. T. J. Conant, D.D., Baptist Bible Union. 

I would place this answer : 

Whatever is capable of thoroughly changing the 
character, state, or condition of any object, is capable 
of baptizing that object ; and by such change of char- 
acter, state, or condition does, in fact, baptize it. 



Will soon be Ready for Publication. 



JUDAIC BAPTISM 

JEWISH WRITERS. 

JOSEPHUS. PHILO. 



JEWISH SCRIPTURES. 

Passages of Scripture in the Old Testament which are interpreted 
by Patristic Writers as expressive of Baptism. 

1. Baptism by the Flaming Sword — Genesis 3 : 24 — Ambrose. 

2. Baptism by the Deluge — Genesis 7 : 18 — Teetullian, Cyprian. 

3. Baptism by the Cloud and by the Sea — Exodus 14 : 31 — Basilm. 

4. Baptism by Wood — Exodus 15 : 25 — Ambrose. 

5. Baptism by Washing Hands and Foot — Exodus 40:31 — Cyril. 
G. Baptism by Sprinkling — Leviticus 14 : 7 — Ambrose. 

7. Baptism by Washing — Leviticus 15 : 5 — Chrysostom, Clement. 

8. Baptism by the Jordan — Joshua 3 : 17 — Origen. 

9. Baptism by Circumoision — Joshua 5: 3 — Justin Martyr, Gregory. 

10. Baptism by Pouring Water — I Kings 18 : 33 — Origen, Basil. 

11. Baptism by Crossing the Jordan — II Kings 2 : 8 — Origen, Cyril. 

12. Baptism by Washing — II Kings 5: 14 — Skptuagint. 

13. Baptism by Weight of Sins — 77 Kings 6 : 5 — Justin Martyr. 

14. Baptism by Corruption — Job 9 : 30 — Aquila. 

15. Baptism by Sprinkling and Washing — Psalm 51 : 7— Ambrose, Cyril. 

16. Baptism by Trouble— Psalm G9 : 2 — Symmachus. 

17. Baptism in Sincerity by True Faith — Canticles 5 : 12 — Ambrose. 

18. Baptism by Repentance — Isaiah 1 : 16 — Justin Martyr, Jerome. 

19. Baptism by Water, by the Spirit, and by Fire — Isaiah 4 : 4 — Basil. 

20. Baptism by a Coal of Fire — Isaiah G : 7 — Ambrose. 

21. Baptism by Iniquity — Isaiah 21 : 4 — Septuagint. 

22. Baptism by Washing — Ezckiel 16 : 4 — Jerome. 

23. Baptism by Effusion and Sprinkling — Ezckiel 36 : 25 — Jerome. 



APOCRYPHA. 

Judith 12 : 7. Sirach 31 : 30. 



NEW TESTAMENT. 

Mark 7: 4,8. Lithe 11 : 88. Hebrews 9 : 10. 



ALSO, 



JOHANNIC BAPTISM 



WHAT IS ITS TRUE CHARACTER? 



i. 

WHAT WAS JOHN'S KNOWLEDGE AS TO THE USAGM 
OF BAimZQ ? 

1. AS TO FIGURATIVE USE. 

2. AS TO LITERAL USE. 

II. 

THE COMMISSION OF JOHN TO BAPTIZE, 

III. 

THE NATURE OF JOHN'S BAPTISM. 

1. AS SHOWN BY VARIOUS STATEMENTS AND ALLUSIONS. 

2. AS SHOWN BY THE BAPTISM PREACHED. 

3. AS SHOWN BY THE BAPTISM RITUALLY ADMINISTERED. 

IY. 

THE PLACES OF JOHN'S BAPTISM. 

Y. 
THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD JESUS. 

YI. 
THE BAPTISM OF JOHN HIMSELF. 

1. By touching the person of the Lord Jesus. 

2. By his own blood as a martyr. 

YII. 

PHILOLOGICAL AND GRAMMATICAL EXAMINATION 
OF R ULING PASSAGES. 




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